Catching the Golden Snitch
by Sunshine1
Summary: Lily is dumped by her boyfriend and Sirius is her Knight in Shining Armor (only because of a bet he made with James). James fights to protect his ego and reputaion while having to deal with Lily, your typical teenage girl, as a History of Magic partner.
1. Double Booking

~*Author's Note*~ Hello, and welcome to the mad house! Only joking. This is the first instalment in my James and Lily showcase. I'm going to write a story for every year starting with the fourth year, but they aren't going to be related. If you have suggestions or comments, don't be afraid to review (us authors like recognition)! :)

P.S.  I've changed this chapter yet again!  Explanation: First thought James was Chaser, then informed was Seeker, now discovered was definitely Chaser.  No biggie, but I was kind of annoyed…

Disclaimer: Unfortunately I am not the brain behind this whole Harry Potter phenomenon. The genius that is, is Ms. J.K. Rowling. So if you see something you recognise it probably was her idea. If not, I was the genius who thought it up (yea!)(No autographs, please).

CHAPTER 1: DOUBLE BOOKING

Suddenly, there was a loud scream. The comfy crimson couch that Lindsey Rundell had been sitting on had bucked her off and was now chasing her round the crowded Gryffindor common room. People jumped out of the way so as not to get stuck in the mad couch's path. James Potter and his best friends Remus Lupin, and Sirius Black, and their faithful follower, Peter Pettigrew, rolled around on the floor, howling like laughing hyenas.

After ten minutes of the crazed sofa running after the terrified fourth year, seventh year Head Girl, Arabella Schmidt came in through the portrait hole entrance to Gryffindor Tower. She took one look at the red sofa, now preparing to charge Lindsey down like a bull would a matador, and then she saw that group of impossibly immature fourth years going red in the face from laughing so hard; it didn't take long beofre she put two and two together.

She took out her wand, pointed it at the couch-turned-bull and said, "_Patrificus_!"

Lindsey slid down the red wallpapered wall and into a heap on the floor as Arabella ran over to her to see if she was all right. But Lily Evans, another fourth year girl was too fast for Arabella and was already by Lindsey's side comforting her and asking if everything was alright.

"Don't worry, Arabella, she's fine," Lily told her.

With that comfort, Arabella turned around and marched straight over to where the infamous pranksters who called themselves the Marauders were. They were still shaking and gasping with laughter.

"That's what you get when you date that slimy grease ball Severus Snape," James whispered to Sirius. His friend, still laughing to hard to speak, simply gave James a high five.

They were obviously too busy congratulating themselves to look up and see Arabella, who looked astonishingly like Professor McGonagall, the sternest professor at Hogwarts, towering over them.

"Ahem!" she said loudly. "Sorry to break up your little 'victory party,' " she said in a voice that clearly said she wasn't. "You have cursed school property, attacked a fellow student, terrorised about two dozen others, obviously premeditated this ambush, and don't seem one bit remorseful," she ticked off their charges on her fingers. "So that will be two weeks detention and fifty points from Gryffindor. Have a nice day," she concluded with a broad smile on her face.

This quickly ended their party, and they were complaining loudly when Lily came over to them, hands on hips.

"Why, hello my florecilla," Sirius said suavely, his lips curling from a frown to a flirtatious smile. "Fancy meeting you here." Lily just glared at him.

"Look, I know you guys don't like Severus Snape that much, I mean, neither do I, but you just went a little too far this time." And with that, she pivoted on her toes and stormed as gracefully as possible up the stairs towards the girl's dormitories.

Lily's reaction upset three of the four boys more than Arabella's had. They were usually on good terms with Lily. In fact, she had even gone out with Remus in their third year. James didn't really know Lily that well, however. She had always talked to his friends while he was at Quidditch practise. But soon Lily was forgotten as they started to talk about new routes they could take to the kitchens that night so they could nick some food from the house-elves.

That was how James Potter had spent most of his four years at Hogwarts: pranking various classmates (usually unsuspecting Slytherins and whoever else they'd get into a patch with) with his group of friends, who had dubbed themselves the Marauders only last year. When he wasn't goofing off, James was soaring around the Quidditch pitch. This year he had been christened captain of the Gryffindor team, seeing as he was the best Chaser they had had in years, and because the two seventh years on the team, Frank Longbottom and Ashleigh Stevenson, were hopeless fliers.

Indeed, he and his friends were discussing James' excellent Woollongong Shimmy followed by a perfect Porskoff Ploy in the recent match against Ravenclaw when they sat down in History of Magic the next day. Professor Binns, their teacher, had just been droning on about goblin rebellions when he announced that the fourth years were going to be doing a project on which goblin rebellion was the most affective in the their fight for freedom and why. They were to work in pairs. James and Sirius caught each other's eyes (they always worked together on projects), just as Professor Binns said, "I have the pairs you will all be working in right here."

The class let out a long, sonorous moan as he began to read off of the list he had.

"Bones and Pettigrew… Moss and McKinnon… Black and Rundell (Sirius groaned at the thought of having to work with Snape's girlfriend, and then asked himself how Snape had landed a girlfriend?)… Potter and Evans… Lupin and—." James had stopped listening; he had fallen back into the stupor he was in before the Professor had announced the project.

After History of Magic, the Marauders walked through the corridors to lunch discussing their newest prank on Snape (getting a house-elf to squeeze all the grease out of his hair and into his pumpkin juice). James felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned around and came face to face with his new History of Magic partner for the second time in two days. He didn't know much about Lily Evans except that she was almost always the first one done with an exam, she was very pretty, and they had once given her a Cockroach Cluster and told her that it was chocolate covered peanuts.

"Hello, James," she said with a slight edge, still looking a tad angry about the previous night. "I thought we could go to the library after dinner tonight and start researching our History of Magic project."

James tried to ignore his friends sniggering behind him. "Er… I have Quidditch practise after dinner, but what about at seven o' clock?"

"Alright then," she replied, jotting something down on a notepad. "See you later. I have to find Derek." With that she hurried off towards the Great Hall.

"Who's Derek?" asked James once his friends were through laughing.

"Her boyfriend," said Remus a little resentfully. Remus had never fully gotten over his and Lily's break up. "Some fifth year Hufflepuff, I think."

"Aww, has Jamsie-Wamsie found a new wovie-dovie?" said Sirius in and annoyingly high voice.

"You know I'll have no one but Luna Faucette," James shot back quickly.

Luna Faucette was a pretty popular sixth year Ravenclaw who played Chaser on her house team, and was very good at it, James thought. She was fairly tall, had straight black hair that never seemed to be messy (very contradictory to his own), deep blue almond shaped eyes, olive skin, and a nice pair of blud—

"Then ask her out," James' thoughts were interrupted by Peter, who had an evil grin on his face.

"Yeah, today after lunch," Remus demanded.

"Or you'll wake up with blue hair tomorrow," prodded Sirius.

"Stuff it, Sirius. I'll do it," replied James with an air of confidence.

Following lunch, James waited for Luna outside the entrance of the Great Hall. She walked out in a big group of girls who were all giggling madly over something. He took a chance and called to her.

"Luna!" She turned at the sound of her name and looked around for the speaker. When she saw James waving her over, she waved to her friends and told them she'd meet up wit them later. The group then left, giggling harder than ever. Luna walked over to where James was with a quizzical smile on her face.

"Yes, James?"

He led her to a quiet corner and turned to face her. His stomach did a mini flip-flop. He had to admit it, he was kind of nervous. Even though he had done this several times before, James always felt a little less than confident when asking a girl to go steady with him. After all, he wasn't one to take rejection very well.

"Er… I really like you, Luna (he could feel himself gong red), and I was wondering if—,"

"I would love to be your girlfriend, James Potter!" exclaimed Luna. James looked up, a little surprised.

"Really? Great! You want to do something after my Quidditch practise at seven o' clock tonight?"

"That'd be great!" said Luna beaming, thinking how lucky she was to have the James Potter as her boyfriend. Sure he was two years below her, but he definitely didn't look it. She said goodbye and rushed off to tell her friends. James walked off to Transfiguration, quite pleased with himself.

*A/N* Reviewing is so much fun! So if you liked (or hated) this crazy little thing I call a fan fic, review! Yay!

* * *


	2. The Proposal

~*Author's Note*~ Ok guys this chapter is a combination of chapters two and three from the other one.  After this chapter everything is going to be new and original (I hope).  Again any suggestions and comments or even questions are welcome, but please no flames (i have a fragile ego).

Disclaimer: Yet again, I did not think up most of these characters, J. K. Rowling did.  If you see something new than it most likely belongs to me.  Sorry if this story sounds familiar to you, but I have not yet read one like it.

CHAPTER 2: THE PROPSAL

            "James Potter, _Where have you been_?!" yelled Lily, whose emerald eyes were narrowed in her fury.

            "What do you mean?" asked a bewildered James absentmindedly.  He had just gotten back from his outing with Luna.  He was extremely happy because their date had gone so well.  Luna had met him at the Quidditch pitch after his practice.  From there they walked around the lake talking about Quidditch.  James had learned that Luna's favorite team was the Pride of Portee because she thought their robes were cute.  She also told him that the famous Pride chaser, Catriona McCormak, who had so far been on the Scotland national team twenty times, had a son in the seventh year named Kirley.  He was starting his own band called The Weird Sisters.  But this conversation wasn't what was making James so happy.  At the end of their night, when they reached the entrance of Ravenclaw Tower (a suit of armor that was holding a mace) Luna had given him the best goodnight-kiss he had ever been given.  Even the suit of armor dropped his mace.  As he entered the Gryffindor common room at nine-thirty that night, however, he faced the wrath of the enraged Lily.

            "I waited for and hour for you in the library to work on our project.  Where the hell were you?"

            The entire common room, who was now listening intently, gasped.  Lily never, ever swore.  In fact, she lectured those who did for hours on the importance of keeping a civil tongue.  They all knew how angry she must be.  Everyone knew how much Lily valued schoolwork and her education.  Even the first years, who were stupid enough to start a game of Exploding Snap by her in their first week.  When the deck of cards exploded, it not only singed little Oscar Wood's eyebrows, but it had set Lily's Ancient Runes paper on fire.  She was so angry that she could have breathed fire and singed more than Oscar's eyebrows.

            A few people almost giggled at James' carelessness as a look of realisation dawned on his face.  He had completely forgotten about his meeting with Lily in the library in all his excitement over seeing Luna.

            "I... er... I was talking with Lun--,"

            But he was cut off by Lily once more.  "If your new flavour of the week is more important than your education, then I think you need to sort out your priorities a little better."  Perhaps, in her anger, she just wasn't thinking clearly, or perhaps she just wasn't thinking, but she jammed her hand into the pocket of her robes and pulled out her wand.  Again, the common room gasped as a whole; they had never before seen Lily this infuriated, she never hurt a fly.  She opened her mouth to say the magic words, but just as she was about to curse James into oblivion, Lily's best friend, Venus Moss, snatched it out of her hand.  Lily rounded on Venus, who took a step back and cowered under her glare for a second.

            "_What_ are you _doing_?!" she strained through gritted teeth.  Venus gave her a meaningful look.

            "We are _going_ upstairs to the dorm, and _you_ are calming down, Lil," she whispered.  Venus flashed the crowed an award winning smile as she dragged Lily, who was still glaring daggers at James, up the stairs and into the girls dormitories.

            When Venus had managed to get Lily into the fourth year girl's room and shut the door she turned to her friend with an odd look on her face.  "What got into you back there, Lily?" asked Venus.

            Lily was still fuming over James.  "He totally blew me off for some girl!  Man, I hate it when guys think with their di--,"

            "Lily, calm down," soothed Venus.  "What would you have done if you had to meet James in the library, and Derek had just asked you out?'

            Her friend paused for a moment, thinking.  "That's completely different," cried Lily indignantly.

            Venus just rolled her eyes.  "Of course it is."

*     *     *

            When James and Lily  finally did meet to work on their History of Magic project, they were very subdued.  Whenever James looked up from the piles of books he was reading all he could see was Lily glaring ferociously at the pages of her books, like she was mad at them instead of James.  She took her own notes and shared nothing with him, but let him look off her parchment after she had finished jotting down a note.  When he tried to share potentially useful information with her, she would glare at him and write down the notes on her parchment with a look of utter disgust on her face.  It was as if the thought of him being right revolted her.  She didn't speak to him at all, however when Lindsey came up to her to ask which rebellion they had chosen, she smiled politely and said that they weren't quite sure yet so they were researching them all.  If she wanted to show something to James, instead of saying, 'Do you think this would help at all,' she would push the book in his face and point expectantly to a paragraph.  The fifth time this happened James spoke up.

            "Look, Lily, you can't keep doing this!" he yelled, earning himself a reproving glare from Madame Pince.  "Sorry," he muttered.

            She gave him a look, with her eyebrows raised as if to say, "Why not?"

            "If we don't communicate properly, the entire project will be ruined and we'll get a zero."

            Lily gave this some thought.  In the end she decided that getting a good grade on this project was more important than her pride and her newly established silent treatment towards James.  After all, if she wanted to be a prefect next year, then she would need top marks.  She supposed she would talk to him, but only if she had to.  Apart from this project she would act like James Potter didn't even exist.

            "Fine, James.  But we'll have to end our little study session here because I have to meet Derek in ten minutes."

            "Oh, I see.  Is your flavour of the week more important than your school work?  I think you need to sort out your priorities, missy!" mocked James, fluttering his eyelashes at "flavour of the week."

            "No," Lily strained, starting to get mad.  "I'm just getting sick of you!"  And with that she shoved her notes and books and such into her bag and stormed out of the library leaving James sitting at the table, eyebrows raised in amusement.

            That evening James was sitting with the rest of the Marauders in their little corner of the common room.  They were gathered around at table on which Remus and Sirius were engaged in an "exciting" game of Wizard's Chess.  James sat up in his pouf just in time to see Remus' knight trample on Sirius' pawn.  The latter gave a painful wince and thought that maybe it wasn't such a good idea to bet fifteen galleons that he could beat Remus, who had been pronounced Wizard's Chess champion in their first year.  Sometimes he secretly wished he didn't have such a big ego.  

            "I swear, that girl is impossible," said James taking off his glasses and rubbing his eyes.

            "Who, Lily?" said Sirius distractedly as he moved his bishop to take Remus' knight.  "Ha! Take that!  Who's the champion now, buddy?" he shouted at Remus.

            "Check mate," said Remus, not trying to suppress his amusement in the look on Sirius' face.  "That'll be fifteen galleons, 'buddy.'  And remember, don't mess with the best."

            "Yes, Lily.  She's impossible!" said James trying to get the attention back on him as Sirius dug fifteen galleons out of his pocket and grudgingly shoved it into Remus' open hand.

            "Impossible?  Don't tell me James Potter is giving up on a girl!" exclaimed Sirius in mock surprise as Remus and Peter started to chuckle at Sirius' melodramatic performance.  Peter then left and went up the dormitory stairs saying he needed some rest.

            "It's not like she's my girlfriend, Sirius.  Besides, I never even tried," said James defensively, trying to protect his reputation.  "Why would I?  She's impossible!"

            "Care to make a bet, James?" said Sirius, a familiar twinkle in his eye.

            "Hold on just a minute," broke in Remus.  "Are you sure you want to make another bet after you horribly lost your last one?" he asked, counting the galleons Sirius had just paid him.  His friend shot him a look as if to say, "Stuff it."

            "What do you mean?" asked James, slightly curious.

            "I bet you ten galleons that you can't... er... 'tame the shrew' so to speak," Sirius challenged.

            "Sirius, she's only a shrew to James," Remus pointed out.  Sirius shot him another glare, but it didn't matter because James didn't hear him.

            "Hey, great idea, Sirius," said James sarcastically.  "Just one problem.  I have a girlfriend."

            "Oh yeah..." Sirius' face fell in disappointment.

            "But, I think I recall someone recently dumping a certain third year?" prompted James, jerking his toward a group of girls trying to comfort another girl who was sobbing hysterically.

            "Hey, I felt really bad about that, O.K.?" Sirius defended himself.

            "Of course you did," came James' short reply.  "How about you try to 'tame' Lily?  Ten galleons," he added after Sirius didn't respond.

            "Alright," he decided, thinking that he would be ten galleons richer the next day.  After all, who couldn't resist what Sirius like to call his "Black Magic?"

            "Wicked," said James, a smile playing on his lips.  "Now all you have to do is pry her off that Derek kid she's always raving about."

            "Damn it!" shouted Sirius in frustration.  "I forgot she had a boyfriend!"

            James laughed to himself as he headed up the stairs to the boys dormitories.  "This'll be the easiest ten galleons I ever made.  If there's one thing that girl loves more than school work, it's Derek."

                                                                        *           *           *

            When Lily got back from her date with Derek that night she was in complete bliss.  She danced into her room and plopped lightly down on her bed.  She fell asleep dreaming of her wedding day.  She was walking down the aisle in the most beautiful white dress robe she could imagine, an iridescent white and mint green color.  Her eyes were fixed on her husband to be, who was standing at the end of the aisle with his back to her.  She recognized Derek's hair.  Why was it so messy?  That didn't seem like Derek.  She turned and saw the best man who was wearing a huge grin and was laughing like crazy.  Lily gasped as she recognized who it was.  What was Sirius Black doing at her wedding?

*A/N*  O.K., I'm not really trying to make this a love/hate thing, but I'm feeling a bit Shakespearian and therefore am making Lily's anger excessive.  Anyway, please review and tell me if you like what's going on, or if I should just scrap the whole thing and start over!  Thanks!  


	3. The Sky is Falling

Catching the Golden Snitch

~*Author's Note*~ Alright, so here's chapter three.  I wasn't exactly sure where I was going to go with this one until I saw this meteor shower and it just clicked.  I think this chapter may be a little longer than the first two, but splitting it up just didn't make much sense to me.  Tell me if you think the characters overreact, or something.  Just so everyone knows, Lily doesn't remember the dream she had about her wedding!  I appreciate all reviews (hint, hint, nudge, nudge).

Disclaimer:  Most of the characters in this story belong to J.K Rowling.  Derek and Venus, however, were created by me (I'm so clever)!

                                                                        *            *            *

            The very next day, Sirius woke up with a plan in mind for the break-up of Derek and Lily.  Sirius usually didn't do things like break couples apart, but he didn't want to lose another bet; he had his reputation to uphold.  Sirius had been going over his plan before he had fallen asleep the night before.  The best part of it was, was that he got to play a joke on Snape in the process.

            Sirius was never quite sure why, but Snape and he had hated each other since they met the summer before their first year in the joke shop in Diagon Alley.  For some reason, Snape didn't appreciate a dung bomb exploding all over his brand new robes.  Sirius could never figure that kid out.  Personally, he would have been glad for any reason not to wear his school robes.

            So it was with unusually high spirits that Sirius bounced into Potions that day.  Most of the time he detested Potions because, A. It was the first class of the day, and B. because the Gryffindors had it with the Slytherins.  But, for today, Sirius was glad on both accounts.  As he sat down, he turned to James with what had to be the stupidest grin he could have mustered.

            "This is going to be the funnest ten galleons I ever made off of you, James," he said slyly.  James just raised his eyebrows, and was about to ask why it was going to be so fun and point out that "funnest" wasn't even a word when Professor Pestle walked in.

            "Silence!" he shouted irritably.  "Today we will be brewing what is called the Eye of Newt potion.  Any one who so much as touches the potion will instantly turn into the reptile that best suits them."

            Sirius smiled inwardly; and as soon as Snape was occupied with getting his ingredients out of his bag, Sirius shrunk a Dr. Filibuster's No Heat Wet Start Firework and banished it into Snape's cauldron.  This way, Snape couldn't see the firework, and when it exploded it would only get on him.  Sirius was glad that Snape was such a careful potion maker, because he had everything pre-mixed in a bowl before he dumped it into his cauldron.  Instantly his potion exploded and Snape was lying on the table.  But he was no longer Snape the nasty, greasy-haired, sallow-skinned Slytherin, oh no.  He was now Snape, the most hideous snake one could ever encounter.  Most of the girls shrieked shrilly as he started to slither off the desk and onto the dungeon floor.  Professor Pestle spent ten minutes chasing Snape the Snake down and giving him the antidote.  The class found it very amusing to watch Professor Pestle try to administer the remedy to the writhing snake without getting bit.  Sirius took this chance to slip a card with a lily on the front into Snape's bag.  Professor Pestle was so furious that he refused to deal with the situation at that moment and dismissed the class as soon as Snape was human again.

            As they started to file out of the classroom, Remus whispered, "Gee, Severus; I guess you really are nothing but a slimy, slithering snake."

            Snape simply sneered at him and began packing his ingredients back into his bag.  And he found it.  He snatched the card up and stared at it for a moment before it clicked.  _'So, it wasn't those stupid Marauders who made my potion blow up.  It was their mudblood groupie, Evans,'_ he thought to himself.

            When Sirius saw that Snape had found the card and put two and two together, he staged a loud conversation with Lily just outside the door of the potions dungeon.  

            "So, Lily," he practically yelled so he was sure that Snape heard him.  "How is _Derek_?  You know, your _BOYFRIEND_?"

            Lily gave him a strange look, wondering what was going on.  "He's just fine, Sirius," she said suspiciously.  Behind Lily, Sirius saw Snape get a malicious look on his face.  _'So, the mudblood has a boyfriend, how cute.  I know just how to get her back for her juvenile little trick,'_ he thought with an evil smile curling on his thin lips.  He quickly scribbled a note and slipped it into Lily's bag as he swept past her and up the stairs.  He would have to finish his plan later.

*           *            *

            Lily and Derek walked down the charms corridor hand in hand.  They were talking animatedly about something, but Snape couldn't hear what.  Frankly, he didn't care.  Nothing was on his mind but revenge.  He was following them closely, about to follow through with the second part of his plan.  He decided that now was as good a time as ever, so he pulled out his wand and pointed it at Lily's bag whispering, "_Diffindo_!"

            Lily's book bag split along the seem and her books, ink, and quills (and the note) came tumbling out.  Snape smiled and ran off in the opposite direction, hoping that no one had noticed what he had done.  Derek bent down to help Lily pick up her things and repair her bag.  He spotted the note not too far away and picked it up.  After looking at it closely for a couple of seconds he opened it up and started to read it, after all Lily had nothing to hide from him.  As he read, his eyes grew wide with anger.  Lily, looking up, saw the look on his face.

            "What's wrong, Derek?" she asked, a little concerned at the look on his face.

            He stared at her, his eyes livid with rage.  "What's wrong?  What do you mean, what's wrong?  I've just found out that my girlfriend has been cheating on me with some ugly Slytherin git, that's what's wrong!" he said, his voice getting loud.  People in the corridor stopped and stared, Sirius among them.  Snape had fallen into his trap, and surprisingly enough did exactly what Sirius had wanted him to do.  Derek continued ranting, "Tell me, Lily, how long has this been going on?  Do you two sneak out to Hogsmeade often?"

            "What are you talking about?" Lily asked, totally confused at his behavior.  "Derek, you know that I would nev--,"

            "Kindly stop putting on angelic airs, Lily.  It's right here in black and white in the note lover boy sent you.  I saw it fall right out of your bag.  I'm not going to stand being mocked and lied to.  If I'm not good enough for you, then fine.  We're over," he said.  He got up, threw the note at Lily, and stalked off towards Arithmancy, leaving Lily behind, totally confused.  She picked up the note and started reading it.

_Dear Lily,_

_            How are you?  I had a lot of fun in Hogsmeade last night, didn't you?  Mr. Jorgin was so mad when he found us in the dressing room.  I can't wait until I hold you in my arms again and feel your lips on mine.                                                                                                             -Severus-_

_P.S.  When are you going to dump that git, Derek?_

            Lily's eyes grew wide with shock.  She looked down the hall at Derek's retreating figure, put her head in her hands and started crying like a child who just broke his favorite toy.  Venus, who was among the many spectators, rushed over to her and put her arm around Lily.  She was almost as confused as Lily had been before reading the note.  Not wanting to talk about it, Lily just handed Venus the note without looking up.  Venus' eyes also grew wide as she read it.

            "But you were out with Derek last night!" she exclaimed indignantly.  Lily didn't answer.  She got up, wiped her eyes the best she could, though tears were still streaming freely, packed up her things in her bag, and gracefully walked off to Arithmancy.

            As she entered the classroom all of the students turned in their seats and glared at her.  Lily was in Advanced Arithmancy with the fifth year Hufflepuffs.  Derek would have told them what happened by now.  _'Stupid loyal Hufflepuffs,'_ Lily thought as she took a seat in the back of the room.

                                                                        *            *            *

            "Say you didn't send Lily that note, Sirius," James asked his friends on their way to Muggle Studies.  They had just witnessed the dramatic break up of Derek and Lily.

            "You didn't send Lily that note, Sirius," Sirius said smiling.  "Snape did, and come tomorrow I will be ten galleons richer because of it.  Who ever knew that grease ball could be so gosh darn useful?"

            Peter, who was walking with them, asked, "What do you mean you'll be ten galleons richer tomorrow?"

            "Oh, James and I just have a little bet going, that's all," said Sirius as he opened the door and they all filed in.  Peter wanted to know what the bet was about, but Professor Smith had seated Sirius, Peter, and James as far apart as possible, so he would just have to wait until that night in the dormitory to find out.

            "So," said Peter that night as the boys were getting into bed, "What is the bet between you and Sirius about, James?"

            "Oh, nothing, really," James replied, opening the curtains to his four-poster bed and hopping in.  "I just bet Sirius that he couldn't get Lily to go with him, that's all."

            "What?  James, that's really low," said Peter, uncharacteristically brave.  He started to feel a twinge of anger pass through his body.

            "Come on, Peter.  You're just saying that because it's Lily.  If it were any other girl, you would think that it was funny too," James pointed out.

            Aside from Remus, Peter also had a soft spot for Lily.  She was really the only girl that ever talked to him, and she was really quite nice.  Peter had liked her ever since he met her on the first train ride on the Hogwarts Express.  After James' comment Peter quickly got into his bed, mumbling something about being extremely tired and needing some rest.  Sirius, on the other hand, lay wide-awake.  He was in no rush to get to sleep seeing as he still needed to plan the second part of his plan.  But after thinking until one o' clock in the morning, Sirius was getting hungry.  He stepped out of bed as quietly as he could because he didn't want to wake up his fellow roommates and tiptoed over to James' trunk to get his invisibility cloak.  He pulled it out from under a bag from Zonko's, draped it over himself, and headed out to the kitchens.  He was stopped, however, in the common room.

            Just as he was about to leave through the portrait hole, he heard a soft weeping in a nearby over stuffed chair.  Sirius took off the cloak and walked towards the crying figure.

            "Lily?" he said cautiously.

            "Sirius!" she exclaimed, a little startled.  She wiped her eyes, trying to hide the more than obvious fact that she was upset.  "What are you doing down here?"

            "I was just going to get something to eat from the kitchens because I couldn't sleep," admitted Sirius.  Then an idea hit him.  This would be the perfect time to launch the second part of his plan.  He secretly thanked the Sandman for not letting him fall asleep earlier.  "Hey, are you alright?"

            "Yeah, I'm fine," she replied unconvincingly.  She was clearly still upset over the afternoon's events.

            Sirius took her hand and looked into her eyes.  "You want to go for a walk?" he asked, praying she would say yes so he could move forward with his plan.

            "Yeah," Lily sniffed as a shadow of a smile flickered across her features.  "I'd really like that, Sirius."

            So, with Lily's confirmation, Sirius pulled the invisibility cloak over them.  Lily gasped in surprise; she had never been under an invisibility cloak before.

            "We have to stay close together so that the cloak covers both of us," he said as he wound his arm around Lily's waist.  Her stomach gave an unexpected lurch.  She had never been this close to Sirius before, but she sure didn't object.  They stepped through the portrait hole and began heading towards North Tower.

            Half way to the tower they nearly ran into Filch, the new caretaker.  Lily grabbed onto Sirius tighter as they backed into the wall.  Sirius smiled to himself; this was turning to out to be Sirius' favorite bet with James.  They held their breath as Filch walked past them, holding his lamp high above his head.  Lily didn't dare breathe as Filch's cat, Mrs. Norris, almost walked straight into them.  They continued up to the tower in complete silence.  As soon as they got to the top and outside, they threw the cloak off themselves.

            Sirius turned to Lily, warily, and asked, "Do you want to talk about it, Lil?"  She shook her head quickly and sat down, Sirius following her.  They sat quietly for a while, looking at the ink black sky flecked with stars twinkling like Christmas tree lights.

            "I hate him," said Lily abruptly.  Sirius looked over at her, a little confused.

            "Who do you hate?" he asked, even though he was pretty sure he knew what the answer would be.

            "Severus," said Lily with a scowl on her face.  "I mean, what did I ever do to him?  He just decided one day 'Hey, I have nothing to do today, why don't I ruin that Lily girl's life?'  It's just not fair!"  She stared straight ahead for a moment, then leaned her head on Sirius' shoulder and started to weep again.  

            Sirius was feeling a little uncomfortable at this point.  He had no idea the full extent of the damage he had done.  No, Snape had done this to Lily.  Snape had broken up Lily and Derek all on his own.  This was all Snape's fault.  Sirius put a finger under Lily's chin and lifted her head so he could see into her eyes.  He had never noticed how intoxicating her eyes were, even if they were filled with tears.  He almost forgot what he was going to say.

            "Forget about Snape, and forget about Derek.  It doesn't do well to dwell in the past," he advised sagely.  "Everything is going to be fine."  He gave Lily a consoling squeeze and turned his attention back to the sky.  "Look!  A shooting star," he pointed out.  "Make a wish, Lily."

            Lily wrapped her arms around Sirius, closed her eyes tightly, and wished with all her heart that Sirius meant everything he said.

*A/N* Ooo!  What will happen next?  Review and find out!


	4. Will you be Paying in Cash or Major Cred...

~*~Author's Note~*~ Hey everyone, did you miss me? Anyway, I know it's been forever since I've updated due to school and the devil incardinate, writer's block (AHH!), but at least I got this chapter up.  Before you keep reading I wanted to clarify a few things as there seems to be some confusion.  A.  The Weird Sisters is a man band (I got this from Quidditch Through the Ages) B. Remus is in the same year as the rest, which is fourth year, he was just the chess champion in his first year C. Sirius will definitely not hurt Lily (I hope).  Now that that's over with... I'd like to dedicate 

This chapter Evie Who, the best friend/muse in the world (yeah!) who definitely got me out of my writer's block by helping me out with this chapter!

*Disclaimer* blah blah blah blah blah... You know it all.

                        CHAPTER 4: WILL YOU BE PAYING IN CASH OR MAJOR CREDIT CARD?

            "Lily?" whispered Sirius, trying to shake her awake.  She wouldn't stir.  They had fallen asleep the previous night watching the stars.  Sirius had pointed out all the constellations he knew, including Canis Minor, which consisted solely of the star Sirius.

            "It's the brightest star in the sky," he had boasted.  "I think that's why my parents named me after it."  Lily had simply rolled her eyes and laughed.

            Now she was fast asleep in his arms with a content smile and her hair falling over her face in just the right way to remind Sirius of Virgo, one of his favourite star patterns.  The second part of his plan to beat James was going as smooth as silk.  He looked to the right of the lake at the horizon.  Judging by the fact that the sun was just peeking out of the Quidditch pitch, he estimated that it was about six in the morning.  He looked back down at Lily, who obviously wasn't going to wake up anytime soon and did what any compassionate guy would do.  He slowly and carefully lifted her up, not wanting to wake her, and threw the invisibility cloak over them both.  It would look odd if a body was just floating around Hogwarts, after all, but that didn't stop Sirius from thinking how funny it would be to scare some of the "ickle-firstie" Slytherins.  Against his better judgment, for he was sure Lily would not want to be used in a prank without being consulted first, he headed straight to Gryffindor Tower.

            He pulled off the cloak in front of the portrait of the Fat Lady, who said, "Password?" with a bemused smile upon her pudgy face.

            "Panthera leo," he panted while wiping sweat from his brow.  He had never thought that carrying a girl from one end of the castle to another would be so hard.  The portrait slowly swung open and he stepped through the short stone corridor into the crimson common room.  Few people were in there as it was only six-thirty, but those who were stared as Sirius headed up the girl's dormitory stairs, Lily in his arms.  He walked past three doors before coming to one that had a banner saying "Fourth Years" that was bewitched to sparkle red and gold.  He shifted the dormant form he was carrying and knocked three times on the door, but to no avail.  He knocked again and groans could be heard coming from within followed by the shuffling of feet.  Finally, the doorknob turned and Zahra Malik, another fourth year, appeared.  Her cocoa eyes, which were semi-glazed with sleep, quickly snapped fully open as her eyebrows shot straight up into her tousled hair.

            "Special delivery for bed number three," Sirius said cheekily with a smile to match.  Zahra simply stepped aside, still dumbstruck, without asking how he knew which bed was Lily's.  As he walked over to her bed, four sets of eyes peeked out from between crimson curtains and, one by one, each reflected Zahra's face.  

            Sirius tried hard not to wake his "special delivery" as he laid her head down on her floral-print pillowcase, but he did so in vain.  No longer than her head hit the pillow, her eyes fluttered open and she took in her surroundings.  She looked upwards and saw Sirius' smiling face as the words, "Morning sunshine," floated to her ears.  She smiled up at him sleepily; he looked like a living paradox with the permanent devilish glow in his eyes and a halo of sunlight 'round his head; but her smile quickly vanished as panic consumed her.

            "What time is it?" she exclaimed looking wildly around for a clock.

            "It's six-forty-five, sleepy-head!" called Venus through a mouthful of toothpaste.

            "Crap," she muttered underneath her breath, "Only forty-five minutes until breakfast."  The girls started to get ready and Sirius was pushed out of the room by Zahra's best friend, Katerina Deveux.  

            He walked back down the stairs to the common room where he saw people whispering behind their hands to new people who had trickled in after he and Lily disappeared up the dormitory staircase.  No doubt, they were hypothesizing where he and Lily had been and what they had been doing.  Sirius chuckled to himself about all the thoughts that could be running through their minds; he did, after all, have a reputation for being wild.  He flashed them all a winning smile as the occupants turned to look at him as one.  They started to whisper more franticly than before and he headed up the staircase, shaking his head at how predictable adolescents could be.

            Before opening the door to his room, he took a deep breath.  James looked up from where he was standing, struggling with a sock that just didn't seem to want to go onto his foot. He either didn't notice or was trying to ignore Remus, who had fallen off his bed in a silent laughing fit.  About ten seconds after a loud thud he emerged from under the bed, his face still red because he was holding his breath.

            "Long time, no see.  Where have you been?" he asked with a grin and a twinkle in his eye.

            "Oh nowhere," Sirius replied in a nonchalant tone.  "Just out and about... with Lily."

            With one final attempt, James thrust his foot into his sock, lost his balance, toppled over his trunk and landed on the floor with a resounding, "Ow."

            Sirius smirked and walked over to his trunk to get his robes for the day while Remus -no longer able to contain himself- burst into laughter, not sounding unlike a hyena.

            "Shut it, you," snarled James.  James was usually a morning person, the first one up, and the first one to start whistling a song that was stuck in his head, but this morning he was oddly testy.  First of all because he was losing his bet with Sirius, and now because his head was throbbing in pain.  He walked out of the room and off to breakfast, still rubbing his head and muttering under his breath.

            There was a shadow over the Great Hall as clouds hung darkly in the bewitched ceiling above.  James walked in with a scowl on his face and sat down next to Luna at the Ravenclaw table.

            "What's wrong?" Luna soothed, fluttering her eyelashes, while she rubbed his back.

            "Nothing," James said unconvincingly, but obviously trying to regain his composure.  "What's for eating?"  Luna passed him some scrambled eggs after taking some herself.  For a couple of minutes neither of them said a word.

            Their silence was broken suddenly by James choking.  Sirius had just clapped him hard on the back and began laughing.  James glowered at him through narrow eyes.  Sirius' chuckling stopped almost immediately as his face took on a business-like expression.

            "So, James, will you be paying in cash or major credit-card?"

            James furrowed his eyebrows, "What's a credit-card?"  His friend gave him a knowing look (even though he himself did not know what one was) as the sun came out from the clouds above.  Turning his head towards the door, Sirius watched Lily glide in from the Entrance Hall.  There was a sparkle in her eye and a smile playing on her lips as she sauntered over to the Gryffindor table and sat down next to Venus.  She bent her head in and started whispering excitedly before erupting into giggles.  Sirius smiled broadly as he saw James' face burn with fury.

            Everyone knew just how much James hated to lose.  One time, when Gryffindor had lost to Hufflepuff on the Quidditch pitch, he had broken his brand new Silver Arrow broomstick in two over his knee.  Luna glanced between Sirius and James, and then over at Lily.  Sirius could see trouble brewing and excused himself with a quick, "Excuse moi, good monsieur."

            He strolled over to his house table with a coy smile on his face.  "Buenos días, my fair señoritas," he greeted as he lowered himself down beside Lily.

            "Hola, mi majo. *  Y ¿Cómo estás este día muy bueno?" she replied slyly.  Sirius blinked his stormy gray eyes blankly.  He didn't really know Spanish and Lily knew that.  He had learned the phrase out of an old pick-up-line book from a Muggle bookshop he had browsed through.  He and James were trying to get extra-credit for Muggle Studies in their third year.  "That's what I thought," Lily continued with a smug look on her face.

            "Will you come down to the lake with me during lunch?" he asked, cocking up an eyebrow.  Lily's smile slowly spread all the way to her eyes as she nodded.  "That's what I thought," he smirked.

*Majo is an untranslatable word meaning handsome, dashing lover.

*A/N* Hey, you know what's really fun?  Reviewing!  Yay!  So just drop me a note saying, "I loved it!" or, "That sucked!" and I'd be extremely happy!  Thanks!  Also, if you want to read and excellent fan fic, go read and review Evie Who's story, "I'm the Face."  Es muy excelente!

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	5. Under the Willow Tree

_~*~Author's Note_~*~  Hey everyone!  It hasn't been as long a break between chapters this time thanks to one Evelyn Entwistle (a.k.a Evie Who), who makes the world go round..  To her I'd just like to say, "Nnnnyyuuehkh!"  which is Yak for, "Thanks for letting me fulfill my life-long dream of staying up all night, inventing a new language, waking up your roommate at various hours of the morning, and writing two totally awesome stories!"  Go us!

CHAPTER 5: UNDER THE WILLOW TREE 

            P.S.  Things in single quotations are thoughts.

            After breakfast, James walked Luna to her Defense Against the Dark Arts class.  They hadn't spoken much since Sirius had left the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall.  Luna walked with a semi-perplexed expression on her face.  James, who had his arm around her waist, gave her a quick squeeze and asked, "What's the matter?"

            "Nothing," she replied, quickly plastering a fake smile on her face.  She didn't want him to ask too many questions, for she felt she might cry.  _'It has only been two days and already he's looking at other girls?  What's wrong with me?  Did I do something wrong?  Am I not pretty enough?  That girl he was looking at during breakfast isn't NEARLY as pretty as I am…  Is she?'_

            They stopped outside the class room and he gave her a quick peck on the cheek before walking off to History of Magic.  Luna ran into the class room, sat down in her seat and burst into tears.

            James ran into History of Magic a little late and sat down next to Remus.  He was still angry with Sirius and refused to be near the babbling buffoon at that moment.  He was surprised to see Remus sitting with Katerina.  The Marauders had nothing against Katerina, but they weren't the best of friends of either.  She and her friend, Zahra, were just acquaintances, really.  James looked over at Sirius who was seemingly trying to suppress a fit of laughter, despite the fact that he was sitting next to Lindsey, and then at Lily who wore an odd expression on her face and was (for some reason unbeknownst to him) waving hem over.

            "Mr. Potter,: said Professor Binns in his usual monotonous tone, "had you arrived on time today, like the rest of your classmates seem to have managed, you would have known that you are working on your goblin rebellion projects today.  Everyone is sitting with their partners."

            Blushing, James stood up and walked over to Lily and plopped down next to her.  She was writing down notes in more loopier handwriting than usual, and in pink ink.  He notice her dot her "I"s with miniature hearts and in one corner of her parchment her even saw a heart encompassing the initials "L. E." and "S. B."  His blood began to boil.  Not only was Sirius just using this girl to get at him, but she was falling madly in love with him at the same time and her didn't even care.  It was all a game to him.  James had never realised how cruel Sirius could be before.

            "So, Lily," he said, trying to get back on her good side, "feeling better today?"

            "Very much so, thank you," she chirped in reply, now starting to bullet her notes with hearts as well.

            "And what has _you_ so happy this lovely morning?  You weren't so cheerful yesterday."

            Her eyes darkened for a second, perhaps remembering the incident with Derek, but they slowly returned to their former bright state.  "Well," she said lowering her voice and titling her head in, as if she were about to tell her best friend the newest piece of gossip.  She hesitated, but James played along and raised his eyebrows, prompting her to continue.  "If you must know—"

            "Oh I must!" he exclaimed in a Southern accent he had heard somewhere in London.

            "Shh!  If you must know…"  She looked at him; hanging on the edge of his seat, listening to her every word. Then she remembered the other day and realised she was still a bit cross with him about the incident with Lindsey and then him ditching their study session.  "I'm not going to tell you."

            He almost fell off his chair.

            "Now get to work!" she commanded.

            "We've got all year to dot his, Lily," he whined, reminding Lily of her younger sister.

            "And this is practically the only in-class time we-re going to get, so let's make the most of it!"

            "Only if you tell me why your head is in the clouds and you've written little pink hearts all over your parchment."

            She blushed and said, "Fine.  I'm going to the lake with Sirius for lunch.  Are you happy?  Now work!" she finished with a smile curling on her lips.

            He was so angry her turned around and glared at what used to be his best mate.  "You know, Lily," he virtually shouted.  Sirius jerked his head up and glared at James.  Was he going to ruin it?  With just one look, James confirmed Sirius' worst fears.  He quickly started scratching away on a piece of parchment.  James continued, "Sirius only invited you to the lake because—"

            He was cut short by Sirius hitting him square in the eye with a piece of parchment.  He uncrumpled the paper in a fury; almost ripping it in two.

            _Nice try James, but I already have her under my spell.  The Black magic always works, you know that.  – Sirius_

            "See?" said James, trying to show Lily the note.

            "James, I don't want to see what you and your friends are writing in your little notes, so could we_ please_ work?" she begged.

            He tried to shove the note right in her gave, but with a flick of his wand Sirius disintegrated it, turning it into dust on her paper

            "James!" Lily cried, exasperated.  "You've gotten my notes all messy!  This is getting ridiculous!"

            But James wouldn't stop.  "Sirius is going to—"

            But just then the bell rang, signaling for the students to move on to their next class.

^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^v

            Leaning against the wall; Sirius waited for Lily in the entrance hall.  He watched person after person enter the Great Hall for lunch.  Some of them, mostly Slytherins, gave him funny looks.

            Lily came lightly down the Grand Staircase in different robes than she had been wearing that morning.  She had run up to Gryffindor tower and changed into her signature Hogwarts robes.  Last year she had gotten tired of everyone wearing the same old thing and seceded that she didn't want to be another face in the crowd.  She had visited a tailoring shop in Hogsmeade and gotten some trim that she put around the cuffs and hem.  It was red with glittering lions that would burst into a cloud of glitter every so often and reconvene to make the word Gryffindor.

            Her hair was half up and she had, for once, just let her natural curls hang around her porcelain face.  She rally wanted to look special.  For some reason she felt a real connection with Sirius.  She couldn't really understand it though; a week before she had been quite indifferent to him, but now?  Now her was all she could think about.

            As she reached him, Sirius gave a mini-bow, took her hand and kissed it like a gentleman.

            "Shall we?" he asked.

            "Oh, e shall," she giggled with a mischievous grin.

            They walked out the doors and into the brisk November air.  It was surprisingly warm for so late in the year.  Many students took advantage of that, however, and one could see groups of kids playing Quidditch or picnicking.  Sirius led her down to the lake and to a big weeping willow tree.  He hesitated before parting the curtain of leaves surrounding the tree.  He had had too many close calls with the Whomping Willow, and, frankly, he was becoming a bit dendraphobic.  They stepped under the shelter of the tree and became engulfed in what seemed like a world of their own.

            They could see most of the Hogwarts grounds and had a breathtaking lakefront view, but what Sirius liked most about this place was that no one from the outside could see in.  They sat there for a while, people watching.  The watched, for a while, a group of second years practising the Wronski Feint and other such tactics.  Lily looked away after one boy crashed into the ground for the second time.  They saw a group of "ickle-firsties," as Sirius called them, dancing around the Whomping Willow, seeing who could get the closest without losing an eye.  They also saw a bunch of sixth years sitting in a circle with an odd puff of smoke emitting from the centre.  Lily laughed as something caught her eye.  She turned and saw two fifth years who had high jacked a boat and were snogging in the middle of the lake.  Professor McGonagall was standing at the shore shouting herself hoarse about how many detentions they were getting.

            "Sirius," she said laughing and pointing, "look at that couple snogging on the lake!"

            She turned her head to look at him, but he caught her by surprise and kissed her softly.

            "Lily?" he whispered when they broke away.

            "Hmm?" she mumbled airily.

            "Will you be my girlfriend?"

            *A/N*  Reviewing: the great FanFiction.net pastime.  You know you love to do it, and I know I love to read them and find out that people actually read what I write!!!  Thanks a pantload!


	6. Revelations

~*~_Authors Note_~*~ Sorry you guys, this should have been out ages ago, but I've just been too lazy!  That and I've been immersed in "The Beatles Anthology."  I am currently on George Harrison's autobiography.  Anyway, I want to thank everyone who has so far reviewed and would like to remind you all of what I like to call the Reviewers Challenge.  Actually it's not really a challenge this chapter, just a kind of luck of the draw.  Whichever you faithful reviewers is luck reviewer number fifty will make a special guest appearance in chapter seven (hooray!)!  So have fun reading and don't forget to review!

P.S.  Thoughts are still in single quotation marks.

Disclaimer:  Do I really need to tell you I don't own any of this?

CHAPTER 6:  REVELATIONS

            "Though I know that the hypnotized never lie…  Do ya?"

            Lily whipped her head back and forth, letting her curls fall through the air and singing into her hairbrush simultaneously.  It was a week after Sirius had asked her to be his girlfriend and she was still elated.  After her rendezvous with him under the willow tree she had come up to her room and played her "Who's Next" record.

            The Who was Lily's favourite band.  She couldn't stand spending nine months at Hogwarts without hearing the rough yet melodic voices of Roger Daltrey, John Entwistle, Keith Moon, and Pete Townshend.  She had bewitched her turntable to play devoid of electricity with a charm she had found in "Enchanting your Hairdryer and Other Muggle Products."  Right now "Won't get Fooled Again" was blaring through the dormitory.  Her housemates had either gotten used to the deafening music, or had put silencing barriers around their room so they could have some peace and quiet.

            Just as Lily was about to toss her head again, Arabella came in with her hands over her ears.

            "For the love of Merlin, Lily!  This has been going on all week!  No one in the common room can study; they're all dancing!  Turn it off before I take twenty points from Gryffindor!" she shouted.

            Lily did as she was told and stuck her middle finger up at Arabella's retreating figure.  She then started to change out of her school robes, which she was still wearing, and into a light lace-up flared-sleeved shirt, and a long cotton skirt that was patched.  She hated her school robes and wasn't sure how she would ever get used to them.

            She quickly put her hair up and pulled two tendrils down to frame her face. Ever since she and Sirius had started dating she paid closer attention to her appearance.  He was different with Derek.  Derek didn't seem to care how she looked as long as she could help him with his homework.  Even if he was a fifth year, and she was only in her fourth, his homework wasn't so advanced.  But it wasn't the same with Sirius.  There was just his aura of confidence around him that Lily didn't have; and she wanted it.  She decided that one to gain confidence was to look better.  If she felt more confident about herself, then she could focus on exuding it everywhere she went.  Plus she felt that if she as handsome a boyfriend as Sirius it wouldn't be prudent not to try and look nice as well.

            Venus walked in the room and looked at Lily. She raised her eyebrows as her friend started to put on some makeup.  When she was done, Lily gave Venus a sparkling smile and zipped out of the room.  Venus let go of a huge sigh, walked over to her bed and flopped down on it.

The past week Lily had been practically ignoring her.  She was wither out with Sirius, getting ready to go out with Sirius, or just thinking about Sirius.  When they actually did have conversations they would revolve around Sirius.

            It wasn't only Venus that Lily ignored either.  Her school bag was resting at the foot of her bed, untouched form the last time she had set it down there after class.  Her grades were dropping, but she didn't seem to care.  All she cared about was sneaking off with Sirius for private snogging sessions under their tree or in one of the dungeons.

            Venus was not the only one who noticed the changes in Lily.  Most of the school saw it too and there was always a buzz of chatter in the room.  Everyone wondered what Sirius had done to ensue this drastic change.  Lily wasn't even sure herself.  She was convinced it was in his kiss.  There was something about the way his tongue danced around hers, almost as if it were sawing, "Show me what you got."  And then there was the way he held her. When she was in his arms she felt as is there could have been and air raid above, but she would be perfectly safe because he was with her.  It was the total oxymoron of Sirius Black that drew her in and the only thing she feared when with him was that it would stop just as abruptly as it had started.

            James watched as Lily flitted across the room and sat in Sirius' lap where their daily public make-out session would soon commence.

            "I swear," said Remus as he too looked over at them, "they're attached at the tongue!"

            James nodded and rolled his eyes as the two lovers connected.  He stood up and walked over to them.  They ignored him for several minutes until he cleared his throat rather loudly.

            "Ahem!" he coughed.  Lily looked up while Sirius continued to kiss her neck and make James livid at the same time.  "Yes James?" she asked angelically.

            "Do you think we could work on our goblin rebellion project since we haven't done anything with it all week?" he said, getting annoyed.

            "James I'm sort of – Sirius! – busy rights now.  Couldn't we do it later?" she asked as he nibble don her earlobe.

            "So, your flavour of the week _IS_ more important your schoolwork, eh?"

            He had hit a nerve.  She sighed exasperatedly and reluctantly got off of Sirius' lap.  "Let's make this quick."

            She ran up to her room, got her books, and came back down to meet James by the portrait hole.

            "Come on, I haven't got all day," she said and led him to the library.

            After about an hour of work, Lily was reading and James was off getting a book.  He wandered up and down the aisle looking for "Goblin Rebellions of the Eighteenth Century," but he couldn't find it.  Reaching the end of a row he spotted Luna and waved, starting to walk over.  She just gave him a quick smile, tucked her raven hair behind her ear and continued with her work.  He frowned and resumed his search.  Finally he found the book he was looking for very near the place where he and Lily were working.  It was on the very top shelf and even on his tiptoes he couldn't reach it.

            "Hey Lily," he whispered, "Come over here and help me get this book!"

            She shut her book, muttering something like, "Sure, it's not like I'm doing anything important over here, just the entire project," and walked over to him.

            "Stand on my shoulders and get that green and black book up there, OK?"

            She climbed onto his shoulders, got the book, and started to climb down.  Just as she was about to set her foot into his cupped hands, she slipped and fell, pulling him down with her.

            They made such a raucous that several people came over to see what had happened… including Luna.  They were in such a lewd position that everyone gasped.

            "I knew it!" she screamed when she saw them.  "You've been with her the whole time, haven't you?  I am not one to be two timed, you cheating bastard!"

            "Miss Faucette, you are disturbing the peace!  Get out of my library!" said Madam Pince shrilly.  "And as for you two, detention!"

            Luna pivoted on her toe and stormed out of the library.  James got of Lily, face red, eyes flashing in rage.

            "Damn it, Evans!  First you cost me ten galleons by falling for that git I used to consider a mate, then you go and lose me my girlfriend and get me a detention at the same time!"

            "Come off it James!  It's your own bloody fault that your ditzy girlfriend dumped you.  And don't call me Evans.  I'm not one of your bloody Quidditch players!"  She didn't even address the bit about Sirius.  Her mind just sort of skipped over it.  She needed to find Sirius like a nicotine addict would have needed a cigarette.  She needed to be in his arms, needed to calm down.  She walked briskly form the library, not even bothering to get her bag.

            She was practically running to get back to the common room.  When she reached the Fat Lady, she spat out the password and flew over to the chair where she had left Sirius.  But he wasn't there.

            Instead Venus sat there with her arms crossed and a look Lily couldn't read n her face.  "We need to talk," she said bluntly.

            "Now?  I'm looking for Sirius," she panted distractedly.

            "You're always looking for Sirius.  Or with Sirius or talking about Sirius, Jesus, Lil!  ENOUGH OF SIRIUS!!"

            The contents of the common room turned their heads towards their conversation.  Tamara Johnson, a third year on the Quidditch team shouted, "You go girl!"  Venus blushed, grabbed Lily by the arm and led her up the stairs to their dormitory.  She sat down on the bed and fixed her brown-eyed gaze on her.

            "Look,  I'm not saying you should stop seeing Sirius, I'm not saying that."  Lily rolled her eyes.  "At the beginning it was cute, but now he's all you care about.  You don't care about your friends or your family,"  she gestured to a stack of letters on her desk, "or even your schoolwork.  Sirius has changed you, Lil, and I'm not sure if it's for the best."

            Lily blinked, temporarily speechless.  "You're just jealous!"  _'Yeah… yeah, that's it.  She's jealous.'_  "You're angry that I haven't been spending time with you because I have a boyfriend!  You know what a boyfriend is, don't you, Venus?  Oh, I guess not seeing as you've never had one.  So if you ever get a boyfriend – _IF_ – just think about how much time you spend with, talking to, or thinking about him and then get back to me, K?"  And with that she slammed the door and once again passed through the common room and out the portrait hole.

            She didn't mean what she had said.  Frankly she thought it was ridiculous, but she hated being wrong.  She knew Venus was right, knew that she was obsessing over Sirius, but it was only to hide the fact that she was still so hurt and confused about Derek.  _'Stupid Derek.  I hope a Nundu breathes on him!'_

Without even realising it, Lily's feet had taken her to the Gamekeeper, Hagrid's, hut.  _'My goodness, he's just the person I need to talk to!'_  She knocked on the door and high-pitched barking could be heard from inside.  Hagrid appeared at the door a second later, but only opened it a fraction.

            "Oh, 'lo, Lily.  How are yeh?  Come on in."

            "I'm fine, thanks Hagrid," she said slipping through the door, "how are you?"

            "Jus' great," he said trying to prevent a small dog from running out the door.

            "What's that, Hagrid?"  Lily asked, pointing towards the dog.

            "This 'ere's Ferfie.  'E's a Crup."

            Lily raised an eyebrow.  Ferfie looked almost exactly like her Jack Russell terrier at home, Jackie, except its tail was forked.  Lily had learned about Crups in Care of Magical Creatures and knew that a permit was required with them and their tails were supposed to be cut off.

            "Um… Hagrid?  Do you have a license for, er, Ferfie?" she asked, although she feared she already knew the answer.

            "Er… No, not exac'ly.  Got 'im down at the 'Ogs'ead."

            Lily sighed as Hagrid put Ferfie down.  Ferfie growled at her, but to her relief, did not attack her.

            "So was there summat you wanted to talk abou'?"  Hagrid asked as he started some tea and offered her a rock cake.

            She started at the cake and thought about everything that had happened – Derek dumping her, people's constant whispers, her struggle with James Potter, her fight with Venus – and she burst into tears.  She rehashed her entire week to him and he sat there, sipping his tea and patting her tiny hand with his trash can-sized one.

            Once she was done got up, thanked Hagrid for the tea, and left for the castle and for dinner.  She knew what she had to do.  She would apologize to James and Venus for being such a prat and take it from there.  _'Man this is going to be a long night.'_

*A/N* Reviewing is so much fun (and inexpensive as well!)!  So have a ball a review tons!  Thanks a pantload!


	7. And Now for Something Completely Differe...

~*~Author's Note~*~ Hey everyone!  This chapter's up a little sooner (yea!)!  I'm not quite sure when the next one will be out, but it's in the making.  My apologies go out to Hyper Princess, as she will not be in this chapter, but the next.  Sorry, I started to go on this tangent and it ended up taking over the chapter, it was crazy!  Anyway, I already know exactly how the next chapter is going to be so hopefully it won't take too long to write and get up.  This chapter's Reviewer's Challenge will be at the end of the chapter.  Whoever gets it will get a cookie (and perhaps a guest appearance?).  I revised this chapter from the original posting earlier today.  Hopefully it's a little better.  On with the show…

P.S. Thoughts are still in single quotation marks!

CHAPTER 7: AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT

            Lily walked into the Great Hall and sat down next to Venus.  The other girl gave her patronizing look and turned away and pretended to be deep in conversation with Zahra.  Lily sighed.  _'Well, that's to be expected.  I mean, I was pretty harsh.'  Figuring that Venus was just going to ignore her during the entire meal, she made to stand up._

            "And where do you think you're going?"  It was Sirius.  Lily gave a somewhat pained smile as he sat down across from her.  She heard Venus give a sonorous "harrumph."  Next to Sirius sat James.  After the incident in the library he had decided to put an end to their infantile feud.  Besides, he needed some one to help him get back at Luna (even though she really didn't do anything), and it just wouldn't be the same without the Marauders.

            "Hi, Lily," he greeted.  "You, um, forgot your bag in the library.  I have it up in my room."

            "Thanks, James," she said, "I guess I forgot about it."  There was a kind of awkward silence between them.  Lily sighed heavily.  She hated apologising, but she knew she had to.

            "Look, James, I'm really sorry about what happened in the library.  I didn't mean to go mad like I did, and I'm really sorry about… about you and Luna.  I can go and speak with her if you'd like."

            "Don't worry about it, Lily.  Besides, I said some pretty nasty things as well.  Forgive and forget?"

            "Cheers!" she said happily, raising her goblet of pumpkin juice.

            She surprised herself by enjoying dinner.  Not only was her favourite meal served, roast chicken and mashed potatoes with treacle tart for dessert, but Sirius and James entertained her by telling about the time they made a galleon float around Diagon Alley, making people chase after it.  One bloke went so far as attempting to climb a street sign to snatch at the gold.  In the end, a middle-aged man named Florean Fortiscue caught them and put them to work painting the walls of a shop he was about to open.  The boys wouldn't have minded so much, but he wouldn't let them use magic.

            Lily laughed at their excursions and followed them upstairs to the common room where James, Sirius and Remus set off a wonderful display of Filibuster Fireworks while Peter led everyone in a chorus of oo's and ah's.  She watched the multicoloured explosions from an oversized cushion in the very front row.  Sirius kept trying to shoot fireworks at Lindsey, but Remus avoided several potential detentions by re directing them towards the ceiling.

            After the Grande Finale, she gave Sirius a goodnight-kiss, headed up to her dormitory and changed into her nightgown.  She lay down on her bed and closed her eyes, but couldn't fall asleep.  Perhaps it was because Katerina's snoring was painfully similar to the echo of a foghorn.  When what seemed like an hour had passed, she flipped onto her stomach and whispered through the dark.

            "Venus!"

            A muffled grumble from the next bed over told Lily that she had heard her.

            "Are you awake?"

            "Yeah, but I'm just pretending to be asleep because I was hoping to be attacked by a Lethifold," she said sarcastically.

            "I wanted to talk to you about earlier.  You know, about our little, er, row."

            Venus rubbed her eyes furiously with her fists.  "Lily, I'm really tired; I don't feel like going through this right now."

            Lily ignored her and continued with what she had to say; she had to get this off her chest.  "I'm really sorry.  You were completely right about everything.  I am obsessing over Sirius and I'm quite sure why."  She thought of his kiss and reminisced for a moment about their various private moments.  "He's just… different than Derek."

            There was silence from the other bed.  Lily wasn't sure if Venus was accepting her apology or if she had fallen asleep.  Nonetheless, she forged onward, hoping it wasn't the latter.

            "I shouldn't have ignored you, or – or anyone else.  I haven't been paying attention to anything that's important.  All I care about is me – what I want, what I like, what I'm doing, me, me, me.  I've been a real banshee and I'm sorry."  Still the silence prolonged.  Lily hesitated and then asked the question that would kill her if the answer were no: "Are we still friends?"

            "Of course we are, Lil!" Venus reassured her immediately.  "I wouldn't let some chap come between my best friend and me!"  Lily smiled.  "Besides," Venus added, "If you kept up the way you were, I was going to push Sirius off of North Tower during Astronomy."

            Lily laughed and looked up as her bed curtains were opened.  Her best friend stood over her holding her stuffed dog that they had dubbed "Snuffles" in their first year.  Lily sat up as Venus sat down Indian-Style at the foot of her bed and started gossiping as if nothing had ever happened.

            As the two girls talked about Venus' new crush, Davey Gudgeon, and what it was that had taken permanent residence up Professor Pestal's arse, the Marauders were on Mission Animagi.

            Every full moon since the end of their first year, Sirius, James, and Peter would sneak into the library at night, under the protection of James' invisibility cloak, to find information on becoming Animagi.  Last year they had found a book in the restricted section containing a potion.  This year had been spent getting together the ingredients and brewing it.  

It was actually more than just a potion.  It was very complex and included a potion that took at least two months to make, a chant (which you had to say in just the right way), and a lot of concentration.

            It was in their first year that they had first heard about animagi.  Professor McGonagall was explaining about a difficult trial she had to go through in order to obtain her license.  The Hufflepuff she was talking to, Aretha Skeeter, seemed incredibly interested.

They didn't think much of it until a couple weeks later in Defense Against the Dark Arts.  They were learning about werewolves and Professor McKinnon had assigned them to read a werewolf encounter and summerise it.  Sirius' encounter had been told by an animagus; an American named Smith who transformed into a horse.  Smith's werewolf claimed to have a clearer mind when the horse was around; things seemed more rational like he was a human again.  Smith also discovered that as an animagus he was not harmed by werewolf bites; only humans were affected if bitten.  The wheels in Sirius' head slowly started to turn and he resolved that he and James would become animagi.  The only reason Peter was becoming one as well was because he overheard Sirius explaining his plan to James and threatened to tell everyone; so in order to shut him up they let him in on their scheme.

            Remus had no idea about any of this, of course.  He was currently sleeping as if he had just been given a sleeping draught.  He was such a deep sleeper that he didn't even wake up when Peter tripped over Sirius' collection of wind chimes, which he insisted on taking everywhere.  The other three Marauders planned on surprising Remus.  They wanted to have it ready for the next full moon in a few days.

            The three walked along, heading for a room in the dungeons they had come across earlier in the year.  They walked along the charms corridor, quietly as possible.  As one, they leaned against a tapestry of the Muses as they heard a shuffling of feet.  Before they could identify the owner of the feet, however, they fell backwards through the tapestry and into a secret passageway.

            "What's this?" said James, looking around the dark sidetrack with a quizzical look on his face.

            Sirius pulled a map out of his pocket.  "We don't have it on here.  Let's see where it goes so we can add it."

            The other two nodded in assent.  Sirius and James lit their wands and led the way down the dark corridor with Peter trailing behind.

            "You know, we should make the map so it shows everyone in the castle, you know?  So we know if someone is coming and we have to hide or something."

            "That's a really good idea, Pete," said Sirius, slightly surprised.  Peter wasn't known for being the brightest fairy light on the string.

            A few minutes later they stepped out of the passageway and found themselves right across from the dungeon stairs.  After stopping for a moment so James could sketch in the passageway on the map, they proceeded towards the secret room.  Sirius stopped them near a china vase and pulled out his wand.  He counted the seventh brick to the left of it and tapped it three times with his wand.  Just like in Diagon Alley, a small hole appeared and grew into an arched doorway.  But instead of revealing a street full of interesting shops and whatnot, it opened into a cramped little room in which a neon blue concoction was simmering.

            James threw off the cloak and stepped up to the cauldron, taking a book out from his robes.

            "Right, all we need to add now is a bit of the animal we're going to transform into. And then say the chant."

            Half the reason it took so long for them to get everything ready was because it took a great deal of time to get a bit of what they were turning into.  Peter's was easy because they kept rat-tails in the student's store cupboard.  A rat was small, so it wasn't too hard to make the transformation.  He couldn't have turned into a much larger animal; plus they needed someone to hold the knot on the Whomping Willow while the other two entered the tunnel.  Sirius had bought his bit in an apothecary in Hogsmeade.  It was one of the footpads of a Newfoundland.  He decided to be a bigger animal so he could keep Remus in check if things got out of hand.  James' was a bit trickier.  He spent hours combing the Forbidden Forest with Sirius looking for his bit.  Finally, during their third expedition, Sirius found it.  He had tripped and fallen into a puddle of mud.  Looking to see what had happened, he found that he had stumbled over the skull of a stag.  He gave it to James, who had taken it by an antler and smashed it against a tree so he only had part of the antler.

            Each of the boys now took out their respective ingredient and dropped them into three goblets.  Peter then ladled the potion into each goblet and the final ingredients dissolved.  James downed the entire disgusting mixture in one gulp.  He felt a shiver run down his spine, but nothing happened.

            "Why haven't we changed?" said Peter looking around.

            "We haven't said the chant yet," explained James.

            "Do we have to do it every time we want to change?" he asked, not sure if he could remember it all.

            "No, you just have to concentrate."

            Peter breathed a sigh of relief and then another thought hit him.  "Does it hurt?"

            "We won't _know_ unless we say the _chant_," Sirius said slowly, as if he were speaking to a very small child.

            "Ready?" said James, _"O.K., here goes.  __Verto me Cervus (muris, Canis)…  Verto me Cervus (muris, Canis)…  Verto me  Cervus (muris, Canis)…  Verto me  Cervus (muris, Canis)…  Verto me Cervus (muris, Canis)…  Verto me Cervus (muris, Canis)…  Verto me Cervus (muris, Canis)."_

All of a sudden, he fell onto all fours.  He felt his arms and legs lengthen and his feet and hands turned into hard, heavy hooves.  Two sharp jabs on his head told him that his antlers were growing and he saw his face lengthen and his peach fuzz grow into fur.

            And then it stopped.  He blinked and looked around.  He saw Sirius sniffing himself and Peter running around in circles.  He laughed, but it came out as a snort.  Sirius looked up and started wagging his tail.  Clearly he had just realised the advantages of being an unregistered animagus.  James shook his head and started trying to change back.  He pictured himself in his human form and waited.  With a small pop he was back to normal.  Sirius soon followed suit.

            "This is going to be so great!" he cried.

            "SHH!  Just remember, we're doing this for Remus," James reminded him.

            A panicked squeaking met their ears as they realised Peter had failed to transform back.  He was running around franticly, running into things.  After looking in the book, Sirius said, "We have to point our wands at him and picture his as a human."

            James pulled out his wand, and on the count of three blue light emitted from both wands and fell on Peter.  Like a tree growing, Peter turned from rat to boy right in front of their eyes.

            "I guess I'll have to work on changing back, eh?" he laughed nervously.

            The other two simply nodded.

            "It's getting late, we'd better head back," said James.

            All three of them got back under the invisibility cloak, extremely satisfied with what they had just accomplished.

"Hey, you know how we call Remus 'Moony' sometimes?" Sirius whispered on the way back.

            James could only think of about four or five occasions when they had called Remus "Moony," but he nodded anyway in a vain attempt to shut Sirius up.

            "Well, I thought we could have names too!" he said excitedly.  "Peter could be 'Wormtail' because he used a tail in his potion (and I thought it looked sort of like a worm), I could be 'Padfoot' because I that's what I used, and you could be 'Prongs' or something!

            James chuckled as they reached the common room.  "Code names for the Marauders…  Oh God."

*A/N* So how'd you like it?  You could always tell me in a review (hint hint, nudge nudge)!  Like I've said, I changed it a bit from before (like changing the chant into Latin instead of Spanish!).  I know that they're only in fourth year, but as I was reading PoA for the bazillionth time, Remus said that it took three years to make.  Of course I didn't read much further because I was just kind of skimming (oops!).  Plus it's my story, so there!  If you don't like it you can write your own!  Only joking.  Coming up next:  A trip to Hogsmeade and a special performance by Hyper Princess!  Oh, and this chapter's Reviewer's Challenge is this:  Who is a bigger god: Paul McCartney or John Entwistle, and why?  THIS IS NOT AN OPINION!!!  Muahaha, Jeana!  You'll never get this!!!


	8. Shape Shifters and Show Tunes

_~*~ Author's Note~*~_ Sorry everyone!  I didn't mean for this one to take so long, but school kicked in again and I got distracted.  This chapter is dedicated to Hyper Princess, Parselmouth Majer and Thislemeg.  Also thanks to Axe, Evie Who and everyone else who reviewed!  It means a lot to me!  The answer to last chapter's Reviewer's Challenge was obviously Paul McCartney (yeah! Go Paul!), but I guess there wasn't really a specific reason.  Just because he is the biggest rock n roll god EVER!  For anyone who doesn't know (which is probably everyone), John Enwistle is the bassist for The Who, another band from the sixties and seventies.  Anyway, back to the story… Reviewing is good, keep that I mind!  : )

CHAPTER 8: SHAPE SHIFTING AND SHOWTUNES

Lily woke up the next morning to see snow falling outside her window.  She smiled.  _'It's about bloody time. The holidays are only a week away!'_

            She dressed quickly and ambled down the stairs.  A group of people was gathered around the bulletin board by the portrait hole.  As soon as a few people cleared the way, Lily read a large piece of parchment that was in the middle of the corkboard.

_Hogsmeade trip tomorrow!_

_The weather will be very cold, so don't forget you're heavy cloaks!_

She was glad they got a break after all the work the teachers had been piling on their plates.  She smiled again and went to breakfast to find Venus.

Across the room Sirius sat in an overstuffed armchair facing the boy's dormitory staircase.

"Hey, Moony!" called Sirius as Remus descended the staircase.

"Morning, Sirius.  What are you so excited about?"

"Er… Hogsmeade trip," he replied, even though that wasn't the real reason that he was so happy.

"Excellent, I need to restock my Dungbombs and get some Frog Spawn Soap to put in the Slytherin's bathrooms."

They walked off to the Great Hall for breakfast chattering away about how the Slytherins would react if frogs started growing in their robes.  "That is, if they bathe," reflected Remus wisely.

When they finally reached the Great Hall, the two walked over to the Gryffindor table and sat down with James.  As Remus reached for the quiche, the morning post arrived.  A note fell into James' lap and a white speckled owl landed on the table and started eating Sirius, toast.

            "Sod off, Gwendolyn," said Sirius to the bird.  Gwendolyn snipped her beak at him and flew over to Lily.

            "Why, hello Gwen," Lily cooed to the owl.  "Did you get James' letter to him?"

            "Oooh, Lily sent James a love letter!" laughed Venus.

            "Yes, and I was hoping he'd open it right in front of my boyfriend," she answered sarcastically.

            "Then what's it about?"

            "Getting together over break so we can work on our project.  We're both staying, so I thought we might as well get part of it out of the way so we don't have as much to work on when school starts up again," she explained.

            "Ah," Venus said distractedly.  Davey Gudgeon had just walked in and sat down at the Hufflepuff table.  Lily rolled her eyes and stood up.

            "Where are you going?" Venus asked.

            "Have to go to the loo," Lily lied.  And she mad her way over to the Hufflepuff table and Davey Gudgeon.

            "Hi, Lily," said a cold voice.  She looked up.  Across from Davey sat Derek with an insipid expression on his face.

            "Hello, Derek," she said shortly.  "Davey? My friend over there was wondering if you would like to spend the Hogsmeade trip with her?"  she asked, pointing at Venus who blushed crimson, but managed a small wave.

            Davey smiled brightly at her and nodded.

            "Great!" exclaimed Lily, clapping her hands together.  "She'll meet you by the staircase tomorrow."

            And so it was an extremely nervous Venus that Lily woke up to the next morning.  She was flitting around the room holding up different ribbons to her robes.

            "Any colour of the rainbow matches black, Venus," said Katerina.  "Go with yellow.  Makes people happy."

            "Plus it's his houses colour," added Lily as she searched though her trunk at the end of her bed for her signature robes.

            "Lily, do you think I should wear my woolen cloak or my black one with the gold trim?"

"Do you _want_ to freeze your arse off?" she asked.

"But if you wear the gold trimmed cloak, he might give you his," pointed out Katerina.

"Give me the wool one. Venus," said Lily.  Venus obliged and Lily took out her wand and traces the edge of the cloak, saying, "_Fimbriae aurarius."_

Venus smiled.  "Thanks, Lil."

After they were finished getting ready they headed down to breakfast.  Venus didn't eat much of anything.  The same was true a little ways down the table.

Remus looked up from where he was shoving sausages in his face like he hadn't eaten in a week.  He had dark circles under his eyes and was looking sickly again.  The full moon was that night.  All of his friends were grinning at him stupidly.

"What are you looking at?  Have I got a boogie or something?" he asked, wiping his nose.

"We're just excited about Hogsmeade, that's all," said James.

"Why? We go there almost every week," he said.

James shrugged and spooned some friend tomatoes on his plate and pushed them around with his fork.

When breakfast was over the four boys walked into the entrance hall. Sirius made his way over towards Lily.  The other three waited for the carriages talking about Gryffindor's chances against Ravenclaw in their match in January.

Just as a carriage pulled up in front of them James said, "Remus, where is your cloak?"

Peter had hidden it before they left for breakfast so they would have an excuse to take a secret passageway to town.

By the time they had run upstairs, gotten Remus' cloak, and rushed back down again; the lat carriage was pulling away from the castle.

"Oh _darn!_" exclaimed Peter snapping his fingers.

"Not to worry," said James quickly.  "We can take the tunnel behind the mirror on the fourth floor."

Remus bought it.  He and James climbed the staircase while Peter tripped excitedly in their wake.

They reached the humongous mirror framed in each corner by a badger, eagle, lion, or snake, pulled it open, and stepped inside.  They all lit their wands, sating, "_Lumos!_" and started off down the dark, dank tunnel.

"James, wait up!" panted Remus, for James was practically sprinting down the passageway.

"Right, sorry."

"What is _wrong_ with you guys?  Why are you so jittery?"

"No reason," lied James.

Just then the three boys heard fast, heavy, padded running accompanied by panting.  Through the darkness, an enormous dog came into view and gave an excited bark.  Remus thought he was going crazy; the dog seemed to be smiling.

He screamed as the beast jumped on him and licked his face.

"What the…?" said Remus, trapped under the animal.  It got off for a moment and stood completely still.  And then, quite suddenly, it disappeared and Sirius was standing in its place.

Remus stared at Sirius' face, which wore the same stupid sort of smile as the dog and now James and Peter as well.

"What the hell was that?" he asked.

Sirius's smile fell.  "We… we… we're… animagi," he stuttered.

"_Animagi?_  What the hell was going through your minds?  Are you bloody insane?  You can't become animagi!  I can't believe you guys!  You'll get into so much trouble!"  But James could see that he was blushing and a tear slid from his eye.

"We'll change for your transformations every month.  It's supposed to help keep your mind clearer.  We did this for you, Moony old pal."

Remus backed up against the damp wall of the tunnel and sank into a heap on the floor.  He looked up at his friends, his eyes shining in wonderment.  He lowered his head into his hands and started shaking.

"Er… Remus?" Jams said cautiously.

Remus looked up from his hunched over state.  His face was stained with tears, but he was… laughing?

"James," whispered Peter like a child to his father, "has he gone mad?"

"I can't believe you guys," he repeated, but this time in a completely different tone.  "You did this for… for _me?_"

Sirius spoke up for the first time since Remus had blown up at them all.  "We just wanted to help you out.  You know, we couldn't bare the idea that every month our friend went through hell.  You always come back with all these scars and you're so drained and we wanted to help you.  Ever since first year we've snuck out while you were in the Shrieking Shack and worked on becoming animagi to help you out.  James is a stag, Peter is a rat, and, well you know what I am."

Remus stood up, brushed the dirt off his robes and brought them all into a back breaking hug which made all of them feel a bit uncomfortable.  He quickly released them and took a quick breath.  "Right.  To Hogsmeade then?"

*           *           *

The four friends emerged from the tunnel behind Zonko's Joke Shop and Sirius waved a quick good-bye, explaining he had to meet Lily and would see them in the Three Broomsticks.

"I thought he was supposed to come with Lily?" Remus asked James.

"Diversionary tactic," explained James.

Sirius stepped into the Three Broomsticks.  There was such a contrast in temperature from the outside he felt as if he were thawing.  Lily waved to him from her table by the window and as he sat down she pushed a butterbeer his way.  He took it gratefully and drank deeply for a moment, savoring the warmth that started in his throat and radiated outwards to his fingertips and toes.  He sat his tankard down, looked at her and opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted as, from several tables over, an extremely hyper fourth year stood up on the table and shouted:

You ought ask Mr. Mistoffelees  
The original Conjuring Cat

She spun on her toe in the center of the table and suddenly stopped.  After taking a short breath she started to sing.

The greatest magicians have something to learn  
From Mr. Mistoffelees Conjuring Turn

And we all say:  
Oh! Well, I never! Was there ever a cat so clever as magical Mr. Mistoffelees?

The rest of the Marauders entered the pub with a gust of swirling snow following them.  They sat down at the table with Lily and Sirius and James started tapping his foot to the beat of the song.

He can pick any card from a pack  
He is equally cunning with dice  
He is always deceiving you into believing  
That he's only hunting for mice

He can play any trick with a cork  
Or a spoon and a bit of fish paste  
And if you look for a knife or a fork  
And you think it is merely misplaced  
You have seen it one moment and then it is gone!  
But you find it next week lying on the lawn

Her fellow tablemates, whom she had been egging on, all joined in for the chorus with less than enthusiastic expressions on their faces while she started to do the can-can.  Over at Lily's table, James joined in without protest.

And we all say:  
Oh! Well, I never! Was there ever a cat so clever as magical Mr. Mistoffelees?  
Oh! Well, I never! Was there ever a cat so clever as magical Mr. Mistoffelees?  
Oh! Well, I never! Was there ever a cat so clever as magical Mr. Mistoffelees?  
Oh! Well, I never! Was there ever a cat so clever as magical Mr. Mistoffelees?

His manner is vague and aloof  
You would think there was nobody shyer  
But his voice has been heard on the roof  
When he was curled up by the fire  
And he's sometimes been heard by the fire  
When he was about on the roof  
At least we all heard that somebody purred  
Which is uncontestable proof of his singular magical powers  
And I've known the family to call him in from the garden for hours  
While he was asleep in the hall

            James couldn't help himself; he leapt out of his chair and joined the overly hyper girl dancing like a chorus member of a Broadway production on top of the table.  He already knew the song, for he had seen it on opening night over the summer on London, so he took over the next part.

And not long ago, this phenomenal cat  
Produced seven kittens right out of a hat!

And we all say:  
Oh! Well, I never! Was there ever a cat so clever as magical Mr. Mistoffelees?  
Oh! Well, I never! Was there ever a cat so clever as magical Mr. Mistoffelees?

And not long ago, this phenomenal cat  
Produced seven kittens right out of a hat!

            James and the girl linked arms and started up the can-can again.

And we all say:  
Oh! Well, I never! Was there ever a cat so clever as magical Mr. Mistoffelees?  
Oh! Well, I never! Was there ever a cat so clever as magical Mr. Mistoffelees?  
Oh! Well, I never! Was there ever a cat so clever as magical Mr. Mistoffelees?  
Oh! Well, I never! Was there ever a cat so clever as magical Mr. Mistoffelees?  
Oh! Well, I never! Was there ever a cat so clever as magical Mr. Mistoffelees?  
Oh! Well, I never! Was there ever a cat so clever as magical Mr. Mistoffelees?

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the magical Mr. Mistoffelees!  Presto!

            And with the last word James let off a Dungbomb in the middle of the overcrowded building.  Everyone screamed and ran for the exit, but none faster than James and the girl.  When they got outside he turned to her.

            "Nice performance, princess," he said with a smile.

            "You were pretty wicked yourself!" she returned

            "Thanks… er… what's you're name?"

            "Erin, and you are…?"

            "James."

            "Well, James, I look forward to future collaborations," she said, only partially serious.  And with that she left to find her other and friends, and James his.  He saw Remus wave and call out to him.

            "Hey James!  We'd better get out of here quick!  Madame Rosmerta looks like she's going to kill something!"

            So, shielding their faces with their cloaks so as not to be seen and to keep the biting wind out of their faces, James, Remus, Peter, Sirius and Lily ran back to the passageway outside Zonko's and back to the castle.

*A/N* Yeah man!  Who liked how I sneakily incorporated Hyper Princess' name?  LOL.  Anyway… Reviews are always appreciated so don't feel shy to drop a note telling me how much you hated or liked it.  Flames are accepted, but keep in mind my dangerously low self-esteem.  This chapter's Reviewer's Challenge: Read and Review Evie Who's story, I'm the Face.  Reviewers get a cookie and a special surprise in the next chapter (yay!)!


	9. Happy Christmas

            ~*~_Author's Note_~*~ Hello, and welcome to chapter nine!  Again, it has taken me a while to get back to you, my faithful readers due to my heavy involvement/interest in Evie Who's I'm the Face, in which I am pregnant Keith Moon's love child.  For more details, don't hesitate to read and review her magnificent story!  I must say, I am a bit disappointed that none of you participated in the last Reviewer's Challenge; but I forgive you because you review for me! :)  Thanks you to **_ALL_** of my reviewers who give me the incentive to keep writing and boost my self-esteem.  I love you guys!  For some of my most faithful reviewers: I will try try try to incorporate you somehow into my crazy crazy crazy story!

Disclaimer:  This chapter is a bit more mature than the rest, but it's kind of the turning point of the story, so reading it would be in your best interest.  However, if you're not into smut (it really isn't bad) then you can skip to the next chapter (when it's up) and I'll give a short summary of this chapter in the Author's Note.

CHAPTER NINE: HAPPY CHRISTMAS

            It was a week later that Lily woke up and, looking at the calendar, realised that it was December the twenty-fourth.  She regretted agreeing to meet James that day in the library to work on their project.  _'It's Christmas Eve for God's sake.  What the hell was I thinking telling him I would meet with him?  What the hell was _he_ thinking agreeing with me?'_  Lily cursed them both for having been so stupid.

            She quickly got dressed in a lace-up shirt, duster sweater, and hip huggers, and headed off to the library.  She received a few strange looks from portraits as she passed them on her way, and even some disgusted ones from portraits of wizards like Salazaar Slytherin.  She ignored the paintings and kept on with her brisk pace.  She smiled salutations at Madam Pince as she entered the taciturn library.  She made her way through the towering rows of bookcases until she reached the table where she and James usually worked.  She was a bit early, so she sat down, pulled out a particularly heavy volume named _Rebellious Rebellions: A Brief History of Goblins and their Uprisings_, opened it up, and started to take notes.

            "At least this time they're not all pink and covered in hearts," a voice intruded her studies.

            She looked up to see James sitting down across from her.  "Sod off, Potter," she said with a smile.

            "Don't call me Potter!  I'm not one of your bloody Quidditch players!" James imitated in a high, shrill voice, also smiling.

            After their last gigantic quarrel, the two of them had been increasingly friendlier to one another.  They even lounged about together with Sirius during the break discussing everything from Quidditch, to girls (particularly Erin), to Quidditch, to girls (particularly Erin)…  Lily was far too passive to change the subject to something of her interest, so she just gave what input she could, which wasn't much.

            Today, however, was just boring old school work.  James' face reflected just how bored he really was.  As Lily droned on – amazingly like Professor Binns – James looked longingly down at the grounds.  Sirius was mercilessly pelting Peter with multicoloured snowballs.  His thoughts were interrupted by Lily, who was waving her arms like a rabid monkey in front of his face.  She stopped when he came to and followed his gaze out the window.  A smile he had never seen before glided across her features and her eyes lit up.  She grabbed his hand and rushed out of the library, leaving all their things behind.

            They rushed through the chilly corridors of the castle down to the entrance hall, creating a cool breeze in their wake.  But the breeze was nothing compared to the biting cold that met them when they burst out of the big double doors and onto the grounds.

            Lily shivered as the winter air hit her like a Bludger, but nevertheless she stooped down, made a snowball and shoved it in James' face.  He sputtered, looking at her incredulously as she started to run for cover behind Sirius.  She should have known better. With in seconds he had scooped a snowball at his own and threw it at her head with pinpoint accuracy.  Or at least it would have been if Peter had not stepped in the way.  He stumbled and fell flat on his face into the snow.  Sirius took this cue to launch a well aimed pitch at James' head.

            Before too long all three of them were soaked to the bone and freezing.  Peter finally came to, and when he stood up he looked like an animated snowman, walking blindly through the thick white blanket that covered the Hogwarts grounds.  The foursome traipsed back to the castle leaving a wake of footprints behind them as they went.

            Once inside the common room, they relaxed by the fire drinking hot cocoa from the house-elves in the kitchens.

            "This is the best bloody cocoa I've ever had," commented James, taking a sip from his mug.  "It's even better than me mum's."

            "Anything's better than your mum's cocoa, James," Sirius said with a chuckle.  "Your mum's cocoa tastes like liquefied dragon dung!"

            "Hey! Watch what you say about me mum's cooking," said James.  And he leaped up from his spot on the floor at Sirius.

            Lily sighed.  "Where's Remus when you need him?"

            "He's in Liverpool with his family," squeaked Peter.

            Sirius and James soon grew tired of their brawl and had settled down once again.  Sirius was sitting with arm around Lily, who was resting her head comfortably on his chest.  James was back in front of the fire beating Peter spectacularly at a game of Wizard's chess.  After Peter had been beaten terribly and bits of the marble pieces were strewn all over the table, Lily stretched and yawned.  She indicated that she wanted to go to bed and

            **~The Infamous "Sex Scene"~**

            "Lily!" Sirius ran up to his girlfriend as she entered the common room in only her pyjamas and a robe.

            "Sirius!  Hi!" She blushed at her appearance, but she didn't expect to see Sirius at 10 o' clock on a Saturday morning regardless if it was Christmas or not.  

            "Hey baby.  Happy Christmas," He kissed Lily on the forehead.  She gave him a peck on the cheek.  He took her face in his hands and passionately kissed her unglossed lips.  She leaned in for a longer kiss and they let their tongues dance together as the snowflakes fell fat and thick outside.  When it was finished, Lily reached inside the pocket of her terry cotton robe and pulled out a small, silver-wrapped, box.  Sirius looked down while holding her in a tight embrace.

            "What's this?" A little smile played on her lips as she told him that it was her Christmas present for him.  Acting just like a child on Christmas morning, he snatched the gift from her fingers and hurriedly unwrapped it.  He opened the beaten leather box to reveal and beautiful round blue gem on a thick chain necklace.  At first Sirius didn't know what to say.  He didn't want to hurt her feelings, but he did not wear jewelry.  She smiled expectantly at him and he quickly thanked her and kissed her again.  

            "It's really, uh, nice!" She cocked an eyebrow at him.

            "You don't know what it is, do you?" She laughed a bright airy laugh as he shook his head.

            "This is called a 'Sen Momulu Ceps'-" Lily began to explain.

            "Could the name get any longer?" She smiled patiently at Sirius and continued to explain.

            "-It shows any person you want to see and what they are doing when you hold it and call out that person's name."

            "Are you serious?" Sirius's eyes lit up.  Lily nodded and grinning broadly knowing that she had satisfied Sirius's taste.

            "Thank you!  Let's try it out!" She was glad to see that he was excited about the gift that had taken awhile for her to find.  Sirius held the swirling, blue, marble-sized jewel in his hand as he called out "Remus Lupin".  Lily leaned in to look at the picture that after a little vibrating from the jewel came into focus.  The gem swelled as the picture grew to show Remus and his family of four children and his father surrounding a shabby Christmas tree and not nearly enough gifts for all of them.  A single tear spilled from Lily's eye as her heart ached for the destitute family.  Ever since Remus's mother had died his father had not only been in a state of extreme depression but also one of extreme poverty.  The family, however, looked so happy.  Remus was laughing and smiling with his father while his three sisters were rejoicing over the one doll they had gotten to share.  Sirius saw another tear fall from her eye.  He squeezed her tight and said "Peter Pettigrew".  The orb quickly contracted erasing the picture of Remus and his family and replacing it with a picture of a snoring, drooling, and sleeping Peter.  Lily wiped the tear away and laughed with Sirius at Peter's figure.  

            **~The Infamous Sex Scene 2~**

Lily rushed down the flight of stairs to the Great Hall, already late to her date with Sirius because it took her so long to get ready.  Sirius was waiting over by the Gryffindor table looking at his watch and then at the stairs where he saw Lily quickly descending the stairs.  She caught a breath in her throat when she saw him.  He looked so handsome.  He had on a tuxedo and his hair was combed and slicked back.  Although he no longer looked as wild as he usually did because his hair had been tamed, he had this subtle suave to him.  He saw her and gave her a sexy little grin.  Lily ran over to him and was glad that they were alone.  He pushed his pouty lips onto hers and began to probe at her lips with his tongue.  She happily parted her lips and thrust her own tongue into his mouth.  She opened her eyes for a minute and saw his eyebrows rise in pleasant surprise.  When they parted, Sirius took her hand like a gentleman and led her out to the courtyard.  It was freezing and he quickly shouted a spell to surround them with a warm fire.  He said a few more words and a marvellous dinner of chicken and potatoes with peas.  It was her favourite meal.  She was so smitten with Sirius and would do almost anything for him.  She realised this as he served her and fed her and treated her like a goddess.  After they had finished eating Sirius suggested that they go to their favourite place, under the willow tree. 

            "Sirius, you really needn't-" Lily began but Sirius put his finger over her lips.

            "I want to show you something," he said slyly.  She gave him a puzzled look and he backed away from her.  He nodded and looked to the ground.  Within a couple of minutes, Lily noticed that Sirius had begun to change.  He was shaking violently and suddenly there was a huge cloud of smoke, which engulfed him.  When the smoke cleared, Lily screamed, for instead of Sirius there stood a gigantic black grim.  The dog made motions for Lily to follow it and she had a feeling that this is what Sirius wanted to show her.

            "Sirius!  This is illegal!  You aren't registered!  I know you aren't!" she hissed at him.  He just walked nimbly over to the willow tree and pressed the knot on the root of the wild tree.  The willow stopped thrashing and the dog went back to Lily trying to get her to follow him.  She hesitantly complied and they climbed down into the opening below the willow tree.  In the safety of the tunnel, another pouf of smoke engulfed Sirius and he returned to his human form.

            "What a rush!" he said.

            "What do you mean?!  You could get into _serious_ trouble!"  Lily shrieked at Sirius.  He just ambled over to her and placed his hands on her hips.

            "I wanted to do something special for you, baby."

            "Well you already did," Lily said beginning to feel a little apprehensive about being down here all alone with Sirius and feeling quite uncomfortable with how he was touching her.  He let her go sensing that she was not responding well to his touch and took her hand instead.  They walked hand in hand to the end of the tunnel where there was a double fork in their path.  Sirius led Lily down the path to the far right.  They continued to walk in frightened silence as if expecting either a three-headed dog or Professor McGonagall to jump out at them at any moment.  Finally they reached a small wooden door and Lily released her death grip on Sirius.  He gingerly reached for the doorknob and turned it ever so slowly.  He pulled the door toward them and made a motion ushering Lily in.  She stepped into a beautiful room with a canopy bed.  White lace draped the bed and the sheets were a deep red, silk textile.  She was in awe because the place was beautiful and she never remembered seeing this place here before yet she knew that they were in Hogsmeade.  Candles and incense burned throughout the small room.  Lily was so wrapped up in the beauty and sentiment of the place that she didn't notice when Sirius locked the door behind them.  Sirius came up behind her and slid his hands across her stomach.  She shuddered from excitement and turned to kiss him.

            "Did you plan all this for me?" she asked knowing full well that he had.  He nodded and set another deep kiss on her lips.  He pulled her close to him and ran his fingers through her hair.

            "I love you, Lily," he placed his muscular hands on her bottom, squeezing gently, "Happy Christmas."  With that he picked her up by her butt and moved her only a few feet to the lusty divan.  Sirius opened his mouth and touched it to hers before inserting his tongue and probing her oral cavity.  Lily was caught off guard by Sirius's suddenly pushy mannerisms.  Sirius took no time with foreplay and quickly began to pull up Lily's skirt.

            "Sirius stop!"  Lily screamed realizing for the first time that she could be in serious danger.  Sirius did not heed her but became evermore persistent.  She struggled, but his veiny muscular arms and hands kept her pinned in between him the settee.  He had now managed to pull off her skirt exposing her milky thighs and a few hairs poking out of her Care Bears underwear.  He pulled his lips away from hers and moved his mouth down to those very thighs.  He licked the inner most part of her leg and even reached his tongue around the bands of her panties to the luscious nectar that lay hidden beneath them.  Tears streamed down her face as she screamed for him to stop.  _No, no!  I can't do this.  My virginity.  What would my mother say?  Oh god, stop Sirius!  Please stop!_  

            "Sirius!"

            "What?!  Goddamn it!!" Sirius spoke with an anger she had never seen in him.  Not even when he was being embarrassed by Severus Snape.

            "Stop!  Goddamn it!!"

            "Don't start with me Lily.  You have been making these advances ever since before we were going out!  Now I'm going to fulfil your fantasies!"  He looked almost evil as he struggled to tear off Lily's underwear and keep her skirt up at the same time.  Lily cries of terror meant nothing to him as he successfully pulled her panties off, revealing her virginity, and pulled his manhood out of his pants.  Sirius was smart but Lily was much smarter and especially at a time like this, cleverness was not one of Sirius' top priorities.

            "Sirius, sweetie," Lily cooed.

            "Finally," he muttered as she rolled him over and she made her way down his now bare chest and stomach to his love stick.  She licked his round blue testicles and dragged her tongue down his thick meaty phallus.  She put the tip of his pulsating member into her mouth and after and few massaging licks with her tongue she bit down hard.

            "What the fuck do you think you're doing??!!"  Sirius cried in extreme pain and vexation as he pulled away quickly from Lily.  She had no time to answer however because she was hurriedly redressing and running out of the door that was simply unlocked by Lily breathing "_Alohomora."_

*A/N*  Yes, and thank you to Evie Who, who wrote _all_ things past The Infamous "Sex Scene."  Questions?  Comments?  Complaints?  You know what to do!  Just click that handy little button and send in a review! :)


	10. The Secret Room

Catching the Golden Snitch

Sunshine

~*~Author's Note~*~  Sorry about the wait for the last two chapters, but _someone_ decided not finish a certain chapter for, like, four months.  Now, I'm not going to mention any names and tell you it was Evie Who, but just so you know these are coming out as quickly as I can get them.  So anyway, if anyone decided to skip chapter nine, here is a brief overview:  Christmas came and Sirius decided it would be cool to seduce Lily, but she obviously didn't and used her quick wit to escape a very uncompromising situation.

CHAPTER TEN:  THE SECRET ROOM

            Lily flew into the vacant common room, hair dishevelled, skirt crooked, and panting heavily.  She looked frantically behind her, and then around the common room.  Her eyes fell upon an overstuffed crimson armchair by the fire, and the content figure it held.  He looked up as she entered and gave her a bemused look when she realised his presence.  She raced over to the chair and crouched behind it, straightening her skirt.

            "James, you've got to help me," she panted in a panicked voice.  The chair's occupant looked around at her, this time with a hint of concern.

            "What's up?"

            "Please, just take me somewhere he can't find me," she pleaded, eyes on the portrait hole.

            "What?  Who?"  But after seeing the look on her face he grabbed her hand and headed out towards the rest of the castle.

            Up one corridor and down another; climbing two, three staircases, only to fly back down a third; it was all a messy blur in Lily's head.  She felt sick, but she tried not to notice.  At last they stopped in the middle of a secret passageway concealed by a tapestry of a snowy landscape from another world.  James came to an abrupt halt and started to count the bricks in the wall.

            "Seven up…   twelve over…   What's the word again…?   Blast…   _fortificacius ajarus!_"  The wall parted to reveal a small room containing four or five chairs.  Lily rushed in before the walls rejoined and ran to the farthest chair.  She stared at him, and he at her, both with expressions of fear mingled with confusion.  For a moment or two her heavy breathing slowed down a bit, but then returned as wet sobs.  James stood awkwardly against the wall, not entirely sure what to do because he wasn't entirely sure what had happened.  In the end he decided to sit in the chair next to Lily's and wait until she was ready to talk.  He sat there and waited for twenty minutes, wishing he had brought his Muggle Studies essay so he'd have something to do, when her tears finally subsided.  He glanced up from his hands to look at her.  She stared at wall ahead of her, silent tears still streaming down her face.  He was about to give up on her ever saying anything when she began.

            "He… he… he tried… he tried to…  Oh, I don't…  I just don't know…" she stuttered through a fresh wave of tears.  "I…  I thought… but then he… and I… and I ran…  But why…?  He was so… and I thought that… that he was…"

            James couldn't decipher what she was saying, but it didn't sound good.  He felt his face grow warm with an emotion he couldn't quite place.  Anger, or perhaps he was being defensive?  Whatever it was it stirred him to ask a string of questions.

            "Who's he?  What did he do?  Did he hurt you?  Where were you?  Have you tell anyone else?  Have you told Dumbledore?"

            Lily's eyes swelled with fear as he mentioned telling Dumbledore.  How could she have possibly thought of telling James?  He'll probably tell Dumbledore!  What if everyone found out?  She stood up from the chair, her knees shaking violently.

            "I… have to go to the, um… hospital wing," she feebly excused herself.  She turned around and ran off through the parting wall.  James ran after her, but by the time he had reached the end of the passageway Lily was nowhere in sight.  He heaved a deep sigh.  Maybe Sirius would know what this was all about.

*A/N*  I'll try to get the next one out as soon as possible, but it probably wont be until Mid Fall break… October 20th, I think.  Please review!  Next chapter: updates on Erin, James, Lily, Sirius, Venus, and Davey!  Review, review, review!!!  : ) 


	11. The End is the Beginning is the End

Catching the Golden Snitch

*Sunshine*

~*~Author's Note~*~ Yes, yes, I know I said I was updating in October; however, I was a bit distracted (failing all my classes and whatnot).  Anyway, hopefully I will get back on track during the summer!  Enjoy chapter eleven!

CHAPTER ELEVEN: THE END IS THE BEGINNING IS THE END

            Lily rushed into her dormitory a couple minutes later and ran head on into Venus, who gave her a curious look.

            "Someone looks like she's been busy," she teased, but upon seeing the horrified look on Lily's face, she changed her tone.  "What's wrong?"

            "Oh!  Um, nothing.  I was just, um, studying with James in the library," she lied, glancing nervously around the room.

            "Studying!  Is that what muggles call it?" Venus taunted, again in a mock-up mood.  "What will Sirius say?"

            Lily's eyes widened again.  She didn't want to know what Sirius thought of what had happened.  She was scared to death of what he thought, much less what he would do.  She felt like crawling into a hole and hiding until the summer holidays.  She couldn't believe she had almost told James.  What if he had gone to Dumbledore?  What if the whole school found out?  She shuddered to think of what they already thought of her after the fiasco with Derek.

            "I don't feel well; I think I'm going to go to the hospital wing," she replied feebly.

            With that she left the room and scrambled down the staircase.  As she crossed the common room, James called out to her from his corner; but she kept walking keeping, her eyes on the portrait hole exit.  When she reached the corridor, she turned to see if James had followed her, and, before she could turn back around, a pair of burly arms grabbed her from behind.  They whipped her around and slammed her against the wall.  They belonged to Sirius.

            "Lily, you have to listen to me," he said with a desperate expression on his face.  "Look, I'm really sorry about the way I acted – I guess my hormones just… I don't know what I was thinking, but you can't tell anyone–"

            "Can't tell anyone what?" James had, indeed, followed Lily and was closing the portrait hole with a curious expression on his face.

            "Blimey, Potter!  Do you always have to be so bloody nosey?" exclaimed Sirius, rounding on James.  "We _were_ talking about the Christmas present I was getting you, but now that you've butted in on us you might as well know that it's one of those hired escorts 'for one especially magical night.'  At least that's what the add in your little magazine said."

            James turned just the slightest shade of red.  "Just what I've always wanted," he replied sardonically.  He then turned to Lily, saying, "All right there?"

            She immediately plastered on the most convincing smile she could and said, "Just fine."  She couldn't have him going to Dumbledore about her.

            He cocked an eyebrow at her strange mood swing, but decided to let it go.  "Right then," he said with a yawn.  "I'm off to bed.  Catch you two lovebirds later."  And he disappeared through the portrait hole.

            Lily feigned a yawn, saying, "Well, I'd better be off as well, or else I'll miss breakfast tomorrow."  There was a long and awkward silence between the two of them.  _Please say something…  please say something…_  When what seemed like an eternity (but was barely a full minute) had passed, she decided to end it.  "Goodbye, Sirius."

            Without looking back, she pivoted on her toes and stepped through the portrait hole after giving the password ("Demiguise").  She tripped through the dimly lit common room and up the dark stairs until she finally reached her dormitory.  After feeling her way to the third bed to the left of the door, she collapsed and pulled the covers tightly around her.

            She awoke without even realising she had fallen asleep.  Getting up and dressing, Lily heard a voice calling her from the common room.  She rushed down the stairs to see all of her friends waiting for her.

            "Hurry up, Lily!" Venus shouted.  "We're going swimming!  Get your things and let's go!"

            Looking down, Lily saw that she was already wearing her bathing suit.  She grabbed a towel from her friend and followed the crowd out to the lake.

It was bright and sunny as they emerged from the castle, and a warm summer breeze was blowing dandelion fluff through the air.  Everyone rushed to the cool water, laughing and pulling Lily along with them.  One after another they jumped in like lemmings.  First Sirius, then Katerina, then Venus, then Remus, then Derek, and so on until Lily herself leapt in.

The water was cool and refreshing, and all she felt like doing was floating.  She drifted out towards the centre of the lake, vaguely aware of Derek and Sirius swimming after her.  When they finally caught up with her, they swam a bit, laughing and joking and splashing.  Rain began to fall as the boys suddenly joined forces and started splashing as much water at Lily as they could.  She started to scream and they both swam at her and pushed her underwater.  She thrashed helplessly, trying to emerge and breathe, but Derek's strong arms kept her under.  Continuing her attempts to escape, she saw a fourth person swimming towards the struggle.  Water swirled round her as she felt Derek's grasp give way and she was pulled above water.  She sputtered and pushed her tangled hair out of her face as the other pulled her along towards the shore closest to Hogwarts.

The sun peeked out from behind a cloud when they climbed out of the water and Lily glanced up to see her saviour.

            "James?"

            "James?" said Venus, a bit surprised.  "Lily, what are you dreaming about?"

            Lily opened her eyes and found herself back in her dormitory, Venus tidying up around her bed.  "Honestly, don't you put anything away?"  Lily ignored her nagging as she got up and began to dress.

            Christmas break ended and winter was fading into spring, yet Lily still could not decipher what exactly her dream had meant.  She had considered going to her Divination professor, Madam Bonatti, but decided against it as the last time she had spoken to Madam Bonatti, she had predicted Lily would be trampled by a mad hippogriff.  Since that was in her second year and Lily had not seen hide nor hair of a hippogriff, she had reason to believe that perhaps the old Divination teacher wasn't the most reliable source.

            Lily thought about this as she made her way to the library for yet another Goblin Rebellion session with James, who was already there waiting for her.

            He sat at a table slightly out of the way, going over his Muggle Studies essay ("What is the function of a rubber duck?").  He was about to finish the final sentence when someone bounced into the chair next to him.  Looking up, he saw that it was Erin.

            "Hullo," he said with a smile.

            "Hi, James!  How are you?  How was your weekend?  Mine sure was exciting!  Got to go home for my birthday!  Lots of new stuff from the folks!  Got this totally cool Andrew Lloyd Webber record with all sorts of songs from his different plays and stuff.  I'm totally in love with it.  I played it non-stop until I had to come back here.  I hate how electrical stuff wont work here because of all the magic and stuff…"

            And so she continued for a good ten minutes complaining about not being able to use muggle things at Hogwarts when Lily arrived.  Thoroughly relieved, James stood up to greet her.

            "Hullo, Lily!  We'd better get started on that report then, shouldn't we?" he said a little louder than necessary, hoping Erin might take the hint.  Instead he earned a reproving look from Madam Pince and a new string of questions from Erin.

            Sensing James' frustration, Lily spoke up.  "Well, I was looking for _How to Lead a Revolution_ by Rolan the Wrathful, but I just couldn't find it anywhere!" she said picking a totally bogus title.  Just as Lily had hoped, Erin volunteered to find the book for them and ran off towards the other end of the library on her fruitless search.

            James smiled his thanks and they got to work.  After a few minutes of diligent work, Lily looked up to see James scribbling extensive notes from _Rebellions of the Sixteenth Century_.  She watched as his hand flew across the page, dipping in and out of his ink well.  Sensing her eyes, he stopped, mid-sentence, and returned her stare, cocking an eyebrow.  Lily blushed and quickly returned to her own book while a smile slowly crept across her face.  A similar grin appeared on James' face as he went back to his notes.

            A few minutes later felt at piece of parchment hit her hand as she took careful notes.  She glanced at the parchment, and then at James, who was scribbling away on his own parchment.  Lily rolled her eyes, but smiled all the same.  She grabbed her wand at the balled up paper and whispered _"Persisto molesto!"_  She watched gleefully as the ball hit James right on the nose, then his hands, then bounced off his glasses.

            "Oi!" he laughed, trying the stop the enchanted litter.  "What'd you go and do that for, eh?"

            Lily laughed at his futile attempts to ward off her charm, but nothing James tried could stop the parchment.  James flailed his arms, yelling _"Impedimenta!" _sending Lily into new fits of giggles.

            After about three minutes, Madam Pince came over and threatened to kick them out of the library if they continued, "horse playing and lollygagging."

            With a secret smile still on her face, Lily removed the charm and continued work, sporadically giggling.

            James kept his eye on her, no longer trusting such a seemingly harmless girl.  He finished _Rebellions of the 19th Century: Volume 16_ and went off in search of Volume 17.

As he ambled back through the towering rows of books, he watched as Lily twirled her hair with one finger while flipping through her book with the other.  The sun gleamed through a nearby window, reflecting off her auburn curls and giving it the slightest strawberry-blonde tint.  He smiled to himself and padded silently behind her.

He approached her and carefully slid his arms just outside hers, and let his chin rest on her shoulder.

"What'cha reading?" he sang into her ear.

She jumped, stirred from her thought, and looked at James.  Natural light sparkled in his chocolate eyes and he wore his infamous devilish grin.

"You scared me half to death!" she whispered, not wanting Madam Pince to kick them out of their study spot.

"Well, I'm an imposing figure," he replied, continuing to smile coyly.

Lily could feel butterflies take wing in the pit of her stomach.  _This is not happening,_ she told herself.  She searched her mind wildly while James continued to draw her in.  Lily glanced frantically at her book.

"I… was just learning about Ulga the Ugly," she said quickly.  "A fascinating story, actually –"

"Oh, I'm sure," he cut her off, leaning ever closer.  The butterflies were now on Kamikaze missions, darting around Lily's stomach, getting crazier the closer James inched.  She watched him close in, never breaking eye contact.  Six inches… five… four… three… two…

"I found the book!  Although, it wasn't by Rolan the Wrathful it was by…"

Lily whipped her head around to see Erin's bright eyes dim and her smile fade.

"Oh…" said Erin, not fully knowing what to do.  "I… I'm sorry.  I didn't know that… that, uh…"

"Thanks for the book Erin!" James jumped in.  "That's really helpful; it'll give us a goblin's point of view of the whole rebellion thing."

Erin scampered off, her face bright red.

James turned to Lily and began to open his mouth.

"James, wait," Lily said, before he got a word out.  "I can't do this.  I mean, I'd like to… I think… but the timing is all wrong and I… I just can't.  I'm sorry."

Afraid to stay any longer, she grabbed her books and flew out of the library.


End file.
